I'm a writer, it's what I love to do more than anything. I'm also an investment banker, a business speaker, and a frustrated neologist. I've written four business books. I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and currently reside in the city.
I've always felt an urge to put words on paper, even when I had nothing to say. I'm a writing preferenced learner. Writing allows me to flesh out raw ideas and nebulous thoughts. I learn from my writing, and that is the main reason I do it. If anything I write connects with other people, that's a bonus. For more, read my article on the process of writing, which I very creatively call, "The Writing Process."
My writing is influenced by Edward Gibbon, Mike Royko, George R.R. Martin, and Ring Lardner. From Gibbon, I learned the exquisite torture of the long sentence, from Royko I learned the joy of characters, from Martin I learned the reward of the long game, and from Lardner I learned the value of epistlic communication. Any time I write, "you know me, Al," I borrowed that from Lardner. And from Wiley Publishing, I learned to abhor the expletive construction. I enjoy word play, humor, irony, sarcasm, history, biographies, economics, and philosophy. I tend be a good observer, and what I don't actually observe, I make up. If you are not careful, I might sneak in some poignancy here and there.
No, not really. The name of this website is a self-deprecating joke. I have billed myself, tongue firmly in cheek, as a "world famous author and investment banker to the stars." This is the world famous author part of my life.
Certain characters are prone to make appearances from time to time. They began to pop up when the World Famous Author conducted email correspondence for his job, but the characters began to take a starring role during the pandemic and the resulting forced locked down. I cheekily began to refer to them as the Clan of the Cave Salamanders, a reference to those who hid away from life due to their pandemic fears, as well as a homage to Jean Auel's great Clan of the Cave Bear. If you are curious, you can follow the plight of my characters in this series of articles, but note: this is not the only place you'll find them, they have been littered throughout my work since 2014.
The characters include GIMMIE! our cantankerous but beloved ticket giveaway algorithm; our harried admin; the hair combing intern; my inner tyrant; Mr. Quills, my comfort porcupine; Clubber Quills, Mr. Quills' protective alter ego; Fredo, my tapeworm, and Trench, our harried admin's pet ostrich. President Cuttlefish was installed as our “All Powerful Potentate, Dictator, Ruler, Overlord, and All Round Nice Guy" after a disputed household election, but everyone thinks Miss Cackles, his vice president, is really calling the shots. Lastly, Hush, the cancelling threat, joined our gang in 2020, and tries to keep us all in line or silent. Preferably both.
William R. R. Snow