(UNKNOWN COMIC) - Notes from the Demiurge

We're all driven to create, in our own ways. Unfettered just happens to be one of mine. For those who don't know, I'm the one they call Burns, and this is all my doing.

My full name is Eric Alfred Burns, or Eric A. Burns, or E. Alfred Burns, depending on my whim. I'm a writer and poet who's found himself, quite unexpectedly, in possession of a real job. Specifically, I'm the Grace Murray Hopper Manager of Information Technology for Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. Before that, I was a Network Engineer, Technical Support Specialist, Technical Consultant, Computer Services Consultant and Desktop Publishing Prole for Kinko's ("The New Way To Office.") Somewhere in there, I was also an actor and professional pillow fighter at the Sterling Renaissance Festival (and others), which led naturally to my being an office temp at Manpower. Sadly, my pillow fighting career was cut short with a career ending injury (though I is proud to report I completed and won the fight in question).

I was born and raised in Fort Kent, Maine -- a town that is slightly more North than North, but which has a lovely fort and is the beginning point of U.S. Route 1. You can just smell the tourism. In 1986 (yes, I'm old), I left his small town life behind and headed to the bright lights of the city, landing in Boston, Massachusetts. I attended Boston University from 1986-88, learning in the process that the United States Navy Reserve Officers Training Corps sucked wind. I also learned that if you don't go to class very often, don't do your homework and sleep until two p.m. most days, your grade point average won't be as high as you would like.

Leaving Boston for Ithaca, New York, I didn't do much in the way of education until 1992, when I returned home to Fort Kent and the University of Maine at Fort Kent, where I took a B.A. (cum laude) in English Literature in 1993. After bumming around in Ithaca for another year, I went West, landing in Seattle, Washington. I had a lot of fun and therefore had to move back to Maine. Ultimately, in 1998, I started at Brewster Academy, and there I am today.

While Brewster and computers pay my bills and feed my cat, my profession is writer. I'm a freelance RPG developer, most notably for Steve Jackson Games in the past. As of this writing, I'm also working on Sidewinder, a Wild West role playing game for Citizen Games. I'm also editing a short story anthology called Mythic Heroes for Superfluous Press. And, I'm scribbling these crappy drawings and putting them on the web.

Remember -- in this strip, we use the power of imagination... and bad artwork doesn't mean it's bad art.