Mike Shea, 20 May 2000
Updated 7 July 2009
Michael Erik Shea is a writer, video gamer, tabletop RPG gamer, technologist, and webmaster living in Vienna, Virginia. Since 2000 Mike has written editorials, blog postings, and fiction on a variety of websites including his primary weblog, MikeShea.net.
Michael Erik Shea was born in Chicago, Illinois on 17 May 1973 to Robert Joseph Shea and Yvonne Bremseth Shea. Mike's father, Robert Joseph Shea, was the co-author of the political science fiction trilogy, Illuminatus, as well as Shike, All Things Are Lights, The Sarasen, and Shaman.
Mike grew up in Glencoe, Illinois and went to grammar and high school in the northern suburbs of Chicago. In his early teens, Mike read the first true cyberpunk novel, Neuromancer, by William Gibson and began to think of computers as something "cool".
Mike graduated from New Trier Township High School in 1991 and went to Indiana State University for five years, graduating with a degree in Electronics Technology and Computer Technology (very unfortunately named majors for a four year degree).
During this period Mike was introduced to the "internet" by his friend and roommate, Matt Baker. After seeing the first Mosaic browser and being so hip to new trends, Mike dismissed it as a clunky fad and went back to working on his Dungeons and Dragons module and reading God Emperor of Dune.
From 2000 to 2007 Mike spent most of his free time in the massive multiplayer role playing game, Everquest, and hosted a character website called loralciriclight.com, the name of his Elven Cleric, Loral Ciriclight, on the Quellious server. This site contained 66 chapters of fan fiction. Loral belonged to the guild Healers United on the Quellious server, a guild that promoted friendship and well being instead of loot and power. Mike began writing editorials for the Everquest site Mobhunter. Mike's philosophy towards massive online gaming can be read in Why I Play Everquest.
In 2004 Mike fell back in love with Dungeons and Dragons, a game he played in his later years of high school and into college. In 2007, Mike ran two ongoing campaigns in the worlds of the Forgotten Realms and Eberron. In that same year, Mike attended Gencon, the largest tabletop and RPG conference in the world which revitalized his ideal for a world ran by nerds. In late 2008, Mike began playing Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition and in 2009 began a new website, Sly Flourish, a site focused on building the better 4th edition dungeon master along with the Sly Flourish twitter feed with daily 4e DM tips.
In 2005 Mike released his first book of twenty one short stories, Vrenna and the Red Stone and Other Tales. This book contains the first stories in the world of Faigon, a mixture of bronze age deserts, dark fantasy, old lost empires, and seventeenth century style monarchies with flint locks, three-cornered hats, telepathic secret societies, demons, and vampires. Mike wrote a series of other short stories including Vrenna and the Well, Vrenna and the Little King, The Bear, The Gray Wolf, Jon and Celenda, Dan Trex, Kadin and the Noble's Daughter, and Dear Kal-El.
In November 2007, Mike hand wrote Seven Swords a full length 50,000 word novel based in his fantasy world, Faigon, as part of National Novel Writing Month.
Mike hates complicated technology and can always be found carrying a Moleskine notebook and his favorite Pilot Vanishing Point fountain pen. He is a extremist practitioner of Getting Things Done, a philosophy of life improvement through checking boxes off on 3x5 note cards.
Mike believes in the long term preservation of our digital lives. To this end, Mike has created a self-generating Life Backup of all of his writings, favorite photos, saved web pages, and short story collections rebuilt daily and hosted at "http://mikeshea.net/lifebackup.tar.gz".
Mike lives in Vienna, VA with his wife, Michelle, and their dog, Jebu.
Permanent Email: mike@mikeshea.net
This work is released under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license. Please send comments or questions to mike@mikeshea.net.