My bio (Jerome Smith) can be read here:Originally Posted by Randall Flagg
http://www.ambannonbooks.com/frameset1.htm
My bio (Jerome Smith) can be read here:
http://www.ambannonbooks.com/frameset1.htm
Any new members care to share info about themselves?
Bump?
Really look forward to reading this thread ...once things slow down for me at work... right now it's 80+ hours every week of intensity
It must be terrible photographing naked woman all day, every day. I feel bad for you.Really look forward to reading this thread ...once things slow down for me at work... right now it's 80+ hours every week of intensity
unfortunately that's not the case.... my real job is much less entertaining.... sitting in a very small cubical in a dark room, designing computer chips for your Apple I-phones.
It gets pretty intense around this place.... and when a deadline is on the plate... the pressure can be overwhelming..
I photograph naked ladies to unwind and feel human again
It is when you have to be a professional.It must be terrible photographing naked woman all day, every day. I feel bad for you.Really look forward to reading this thread ...once things slow down for me at work... right now it's 80+ hours every week of intensity
Look, photo, but never ever touch as a horny old man.
I'll give this bio thing a shot. Born and raised in Southern Indiana(1986). Grew up on a farm, so yeah I definitely enjoy country life. Played guitar in a few bands as a teenager. Idolized Stevie Ray Vaughan. I worked for 5 1/2 years in home health care working with developmentally disabled individuals. After I met my ol' lady and we had a son (he is now 4), I realized I needed to find a better paying career. I joined the Laborer's Union and worked construction for a few years and worked like I hated myself haha. Then I got my associates in Computer Information Technology and started work for Cummins Inc. I am now an instrumentation Engineering Technician in our Emissions Lab. Basically I work on the equipment that measures the emissions of the engines we are developing. Besides collecting books, I love sports, music, and tattoos
I guess I could take a stab at this.....
I was born in Portland Maine in 1963 and have one older sister. We moved to Gray, Maine 3 days later and I stayed there for the next 18 years. I was never much of an athlete, but back in rural Maine in the '70s taking your rifle to school was not only allowed, it was encouraged! At least as long as you were a member of the Rifle Team it was okay.. .22 calibre, iron sights, paper targets, 50' indoor range. We were the state champs for something like 18 years and never finished lower than 3rd.
Joined the US Army Delayed Entry Program in 1980 and left for Ft McClellan Al. in 1981. Graduated Military Police School and did my first year at Camp Page, South Korea. Took a side trip to Military Working Dog School at Lackland AFB on my way to Ft Hood Tx where I spent the next 5 years as a Patrol/Narcotic Working Dog handler. Met my first wife at Ft Hood. 'Nuff said.
I left the army in 1987, moved back to Maine, joned the National Guard, divorced the wife, and got a job with an armored car company.
7 years and one 20 cent raise later it was time to move on. I went back to school and got a degree in business managment with a certificate in travel and tourism. I also worked for the first commercial internet provider in Maine starting in about '94. I was hired to be the Macintosh Tech. My boss was a total UNIX freak. I did that until '97 when I went to work for Time Warner.
I met my present wife in an almost King-esque fashion. It was Valentines Day, 1996 (awwww, how cute!). It was also at my fathers funeral. (Seriously?). We married in 2000 and are still going strong. No kids, but some pretty cool cats.
Right now we are providing in-home health care for an elderly gent with advanced dementia. Nothing I have done before prepared me for this. Sometimes I think I would rather go back to getting shot-at, stabbed, and beat-up. It has truly been a learning experience.
Guess that's about it. I'll go back and re-read this after I post itand see if any editing needs done!
"Thanks, but no, it isn't a cowboy hat. It's a fedora. And yes, Indianna Jones is still socially relevant."
Chris, I LOVE that you met Julie at a funeral! That's fantastic!I guess I could take a stab at this.....
I was born in Portland Maine in 1963 and have one older sister. We moved to Gray, Maine 3 days later and I stayed there for the next 18 years. I was never much of an athlete, but back in rural Maine in the '70s taking your rifle to school was not only allowed, it was encouraged! At least as long as you were a member of the Rifle Team it was okay.
Joined the US Army Delayed Entry Program in 1980 and left for Ft McClellan Al. in 1981. Graduated Military Police School and did my first year at Camp Page, South Korea. Took a side trip to Military Working Dog School at Lackland AFB on my way to Ft Hood Tx where I spent the next 5 years as a Patrol/Narcotic Working Dog handler. Met my first wife at Ft Hood. 'Nuff said.
I left the army in 1987, moved back to Maine, joned the National Guard, divorced the wife, and got a job with an armored car company.
7 years and one 20 cent raise later it was time to move on. I went back to school and got a degree in business managment with a certificate in travel and tourism. I also worked for the first commercial internet provider in Maine starting in about '94. I was hired to be the Macintosh Tech. My boss was a total UNIX freak. I did that until '97 when I went to work for Time Warner.
I met my present wife in an almost King-esque fashion. It was Valentines Day, 1996 (awwww, how cute!). It was also at my fathers funeral. (Seriously?). We married in 2000 and are still going strong. No kids, but some pretty cool cats.
Right now we are providing in-home health care for an elderly gent with advanced dementia. Nothing I have done before prepared me for this. Sometimes I think I would rather go back to getting shot-at, stabbed, and beat-up. It has truly been a learning experience.
Guess that's about it. I'll go back and re-read this after I post itand see if any editing needs done!
Ok... stuck at work here on a Sat night with another 10 hours to go... taking a short break and I'm loving reading about my DT family here.... even If Jerome want to poop the party... (BTW Jerome, your BIO link didn't work for me, I'm guessing that was your way getting out of sharing)
Anyway... you guys probably already know more about me than you really want... but I have 10 minutes to blow while my machine crunches some numbers... so what the hell.... my life history... publish it for me shannon?
Born in Fort worth, moved to Waco Texas at the age of 2 months... I'm a 5th generation Texan on both sides of the family, even had a great great uncle sign the Texas Right of Succession Act back when Texas went Confederate.
Growing up in the 60's, I share a lot of the common experiences that one reads about in King's books... I identified the most with the kids in It playing in the barrens... that summed up my childhood perfectly. Graduated High School in 77, went on to Jr college then moved to Austin in 1979 to attend the University of Texas... I started college as a biology major... but ended up the first time with a Fine Arts degree in sculpture.
I got married to my college sweetheart in 82, divorced her 9 months later in 83... and never been married since. I don't make mistakes twice.
I guess my life has been defined by my work... I've worked in a lot of different professions - usually holding down two to three jobs at a time or working full-time while going to school. Since I was 15 in 1974... until present... I've only been unemployed for 2 months... and even at that time I still had my DJ business.
some of the jobs I held include:
selling bags of lamb wool door to door and mowing yards when I was 13
Dairy Queen 3.5 yrs as a cook/assistant manager (while in high school)
Mrs Baird's Bakeries 3 yrs in shipping - 1 year in production and 1 yr as a Garage mechanic
Safeway 6.5 yrs as Night crew, Non-Food's Manager, Dairy Manager
John Felix Dance Studios 8 mo. as a Dance instructor
Golden Life Fitness Centers 6 mo. as a Fitness coach and Sales
Austin WholeSale - 3 mo. as a dude that sold crap out of the back of his truck on the streets
UPS 1 mo. - Christmas Package Delivery Helper
Tom Thumb Groceries 6 mo. - Night Stocker
7-11 1 yr - Night Clerk
Craven Laboratories 3.5 yrs- Analytical Chemistry Technician
Parmer Lane Tavern 6 yrs - DJ, Bouncer, Barback
Dessau Hall 4 mo- DJ
Red Rose strip club 3 mo.- DJ
Crazy Lady GentleMen's club - off and on Dj for 2 years
a private swinger's club for 6 years - DJ
My own mobile DJ business 28 yrs
Advance Micro Devices 4 mo Integrated circuit Mask Designer contractor
Vantis Semiconductors 1 yrs -I.C. Mask Designer
Lattice Semiconductors 4.5 yrs -I.C. Mask Designer
Volt Contractors/AMD 1.5 yrs - I.C. Senior Mask Designer
Advance Micro Devices(round 2) 5.5 yrs- I.C. Staff Tech. Mask Designer
currently a mask design engineer with Apple
So what changed my life the most was probably a FBI raid and the ensuring 4 year investigation.
After Safeway closed in the 80's, I took a job as a glassware washer in a environmental testing lab... and worked my way up to being in charge of several multi-million dollar projects... over the 3 years I worked there, I was going back to school majoring in computer science, since I was the only person in the lab that didn't have a science degree. I worked very closely with the owner - Don Craven - who took me under his wing and taught me how to extract pesticide samples sent to us from the big companies - Chevron, Rohm & Haus, Dupont, and yes... Monsanto among others. After learning to run samples successfully, the owner then taught me the ins and outs of Gas chromatography and liquid chromatography... and I ended up managing other people.
Long story shortened somewhat, the owner was falsifying pesticide data to try to get more sample sets run in shorter time. The FBI and EPA raided the lab in 1989, shut it down... after 3 years of 8 hours a week sitting at the US Attorney General's office in downtown Austin, going over old data with the FBI and many other officials, I testified before a Grand Jury as a key witness in the biggest EPA case ever held... the owner went to jail for 5 years and there was a fine of 23.5 million and change.
After that... I was damned poor all through the 90's, living on much less than 7000.00 a year.. just DJing until I decided to go back to school- at which time I got my engineering degree in 1997 and been doing great ever since.
Whenever things get tough, I look back to 1990 and I know I've made it through a lot worse. that year in addition to losing my job, career path, all my work friends (we were banned for communicating with one another), my insurance, and constantly threatened by the possibility of going to jail for something someone else did, - I also lost my mother to cigarettes, I was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma cancer, had the van I used for my fledgling DJ business totaled while I wasn't even in it, and even broke up with my girlfriend of 5 years. So since then, I just take one day at a time.
I love my three pups, fast cars - the quirkier the better, taking art shots of hot young sweet things, good food, and good booze... but since I got the 'betes last year no more booze and most of the good food is off limits.
The bio for me was a link to Shannon's now defunct Ambannon books. I'll dig it up and post it.
Jerome Smith:
"Born the son of an Alabama cotton sharecropper, Jerome Smith is retired and currently resides in Northern California with his wife Dolores, two children (of six total), and assorted pets. Jerome enjoys his book collecting hobby, High-Definition TV, the NFL, and fine India Pale Ales. He is the owner and Director of TheDarkTower.org, a discussion forum focusing on reading and collecting Stephen King books. He invites you to visit his website and introduce yourself."
I save everything.
so .... you saved those neked pictures of me I sent you for my bio?
Didn't we all??so .... you saved those neked pictures of me I sent you for my bio?
nice to hear that my "mass maling" was not in vainDidn't we all??so .... you saved those neked pictures of me I sent you for my bio?
This is fun, I love reading the bios. Here's mine, I guess..
Was born in Salem, Oregon...grew up in nearby Woodburn, Oregon. Attended Oregon State for a very brief period to study music (I had played piano + trumpet most of my life), decided school wasn't for me. Moved back home to work in my family business, a local small-town newspaper that my father owned and published for 40 years. I ended up working there for 10+ years in advertising, graphic design, obituaries, photographer and so much more.
When I was a young adult I became involved in my local GLBT community, serving on boards of non-profit organizations from pride festivals to youth organizations to GLBT fundraising organizations. I competed for and was crowned Mr. Gay Salem 2007 and then Mr. Gay Oregon 2009. In 2007 I was diagnosed HIV positive and in 2010 was diagnosed with AIDS so I created an annual fundraising event (going on 9 years now) and have raised over $100,000 for many HIV/AIDS organizations in Oregon and the Tijuana AIDS Fund. I've been a part of HIV prevention campaigns in magazines and online across the country and was featured in a project for the International Conference on AIDS. I've been honored with two humanitarian awards in Oregon and an International HIV/AIDS leadership award just last year. I love doing this stuff and won't stop until there is a cure.
In my other life, I'm very active in the horror fiction community. I "discovered" Stephen King at a VERY young age but wasn't a huge fan until about 1996 when I was buying the Green Mile paperback installments at my local grocery store. Thanks to the internet and being a curious teenager, I discovered the group SKEMERs about this time but didn't join until I had permission from my mother at age 17 or so in 1998. I attended my first SKEMERs Con in Bangor in 1999 and went to many of them after that, and I attended my first general horror convention in 2001, the World Horror Convention in Seattle, where I met Straub, Ketchum, Keene and so many others that I work with today. In about 2002 I started writing book reviews for Cemetery Dance magazine, shortly after I was reading fiction submissions for Flesh & Blood magazine and also helped get Dark Discoveries magazine off the ground. I founded the Northwest Horror Professionals group where we hosted several book release parties, hosted authors as they toured to Portland and hosted tables at local conventions. I've written hundreds of book reviews and interviews for many publications....CD, DD, Talesbones, Horror Fiction Review, Insidious Reflections, Shocklines, Hellnotes, Living Blood magazine, Icarus magazine and many more, but now I only write for Scream Magazine in the UK and Cemetery Dance. I used to attend MANY conventions...Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker weekends, NECON, HorrorFind Conventions, HP Lovecraft Film Fests, etc. but I really don't have the time or money anymore. I also proof manuscripts for Cemetery Dance....and yes, I've proofed Stephen King.
Personal life...I live in Salem, Oregon today in my home I bought when I was 20 (12 years ago!), I live with my partner of 2 years who moved here from North Carolina, and our min pin named Zoe. I've worked in the real estate business for three years now currently as a Relocation Coordinator and Transaction Assistant.
~Jonathan
Quebec born and raised, I now attend McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. I'm studying law, politics, and society as a form of pre-law. I may very well be the youngest member on here at only 19.
My family is originally from the country, where I was raised on an inactive-farm. I moved out to the city at 16 and have lived alone with my cat ever since. I've always loved to read, and my first King book was The Stand in 6th grade. I hope to acquire a S/L of The Stand this year to be my holy grail piece. I have a room dedicated to my collecting, with glass display cases, two bookcases, and numerous photos, paintings, etc. Other than King, I collect George R.R. Martin, Phillip K. Dick, and bodybuilding memorabilia– which brings me to my next hobby.
I'm a certified personal trainer and absolute fitness/health addict. I work at a gym during the school year, and at a port during the summer. As it stands, I'm competing in a bodybuilding show on July 9th, so I'm living a pretty strict lifestyle at the moment.
I hope to really make progress on my King collecting this year, and just picked up two signed limited editions last night– my first two, actually. I've promised myself that if I win my show in July I'll buy the S/L The Stand as a reward. Self-motivation.
"No two persons ever read the same book." - Edmund Wilson
You forgot to mention that awesome web group you had, where we originally met - and when you decided to fold it... it spurred me to create the King's Closet Group... until they closed those groups down.This is fun, I love reading the bios. Here's mine, I guess..
Was born in Salem, Oregon...grew up in nearby Woodburn, Oregon. Attended Oregon State for a very brief period to study music (I had played piano + trumpet most of my life), decided school wasn't for me. Moved back home to work in my family business, a local small-town newspaper that my father owned and published for 40 years. I ended up working there for 10+ years in advertising, graphic design, obituaries, photographer and so much more.
When I was a young adult I became involved in my local GLBT community, serving on boards of non-profit organizations from pride festivals to youth organizations to GLBT fundraising organizations. I competed for and was crowned Mr. Gay Salem 2007 and then Mr. Gay Oregon 2009. In 2007 I was diagnosed HIV positive and in 2010 was diagnosed with AIDS so I created an annual fundraising event (going on 9 years now) and have raised over $100,000 for many HIV/AIDS organizations in Oregon and the Tijuana AIDS Fund. I've been a part of HIV prevention campaigns in magazines and online across the country and was featured in a project for the International Conference on AIDS. I've been honored with two humanitarian awards in Oregon and an International HIV/AIDS leadership award just last year. I love doing this stuff and won't stop until there is a cure.
In my other life, I'm very active in the horror fiction community. I "discovered" Stephen King at a VERY young age but wasn't a huge fan until about 1996 when I was buying the Green Mile paperback installments at my local grocery store. Thanks to the internet and being a curious teenager, I discovered the group SKEMERs about this time but didn't join until I had permission from my mother at age 17 or so in 1998. I attended my first SKEMERs Con in Bangor in 1999 and went to many of them after that, and I attended my first general horror convention in 2001, the World Horror Convention in Seattle, where I met Straub, Ketchum, Keene and so many others that I work with today. In about 2002 I started writing book reviews for Cemetery Dance magazine, shortly after I was reading fiction submissions for Flesh & Blood magazine and also helped get Dark Discoveries magazine off the ground. I founded the Northwest Horror Professionals group where we hosted several book release parties, hosted authors as they toured to Portland and hosted tables at local conventions. I've written hundreds of book reviews and interviews for many publications....CD, DD, Talesbones, Horror Fiction Review, Insidious Reflections, Shocklines, Hellnotes, Living Blood magazine, Icarus magazine and many more, but now I only write for Scream Magazine in the UK and Cemetery Dance. I used to attend MANY conventions...Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker weekends, NECON, HorrorFind Conventions, HP Lovecraft Film Fests, etc. but I really don't have the time or money anymore. I also proof manuscripts for Cemetery Dance....and yes, I've proofed Stephen King.
Personal life...I live in Salem, Oregon today in my home I bought when I was 20 (12 years ago!), I live with my partner of 2 years who moved here from North Carolina, and our min pin named Zoe. I've worked in the real estate business for three years now currently as a Relocation Coordinator and Transaction Assistant.
Oh yeah... and you forgot to mention the world famous T-Shirt collection
nah, if you're talking mentally, Merlin, RF and I are all way younger
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