(urth) An Introduction...

[Ryan Dunn]

Hello,

My name is Ryan Dunn.

I know many of you are long-time participants here on the urth.net mailing list. I am humbled by much of your prowess and breadth of knowledge on things both inside and out of Wolfe's Whorl.

About me, briefly...

I am a commercial film director living and working in New York City (www.ladies-gentlemen.tv). I recently moved from Barrington, IL, where I worked in Chicago for a cumulative 7 years.

But perhaps the only real tidbit you might care to know about me at this point is that, while working in Chicago, I was fortunate enough to have lived five doors down from Mr. Wolfe himself, and have found him to be one of the kindest neighbors a man and his family could ask for. Having watched him walk his dogs (first Calamity Jane and then Bobby) on a daily basis, we formed a very passing, but endearing relationship.

Attempting to have conversations with him, however, was a bit like asking a toddler to contrast and compare Dickens against Shakespeare. I, of course, was the toddler. I remember one incident where a compliment from me on his latest book, "An Evil Guest," quickly evolved into a history lesson from Gene on when the Egyptians attempted to invade the Greek Islands.

Wolfe was in fact my favorite author before I moved to Barrington (which quite coincidentally is where my wife was born and raised). I went through genre writing both quiality (Tolkien, Gibson, Stephenson) and questionable (Rowling, Goodkind, Jordan) before arriving at Wolfe's doorstep. But once I discovered him, all other writers could do little more than pale in comparison. I did not have any clue where Mr. Wolfe lived when we moved into that quaint village, so imagine my surprise when my father-in-law informed me!

At any rate, I simply wanted to say hello, share my background, unique story about Gene Wolfe, and that I hope to add to -- and use this list in the future -- for reasons both selfish and social. I am a fan of the urth.net group, and have been reading passively for many years (it is a bit of work to try and stay current with these discussions!).

Hope to join the debate some time soon.

...ryan

P.S. Also, I'm going to pretend he used my surname as inspiration for his main character in The Sorcerer's House, Baxter Dunn. A man can pretend, can't he?
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