Dr. Shaun Duke, Professional Nerd

Announcements

Duke’s Great Book Sale Cause He’s Moving…

It has been an inordinate amount of time since I last posted. It’s been a busy year. New job incoming. New move incoming. Family is growing. Life is wild! Speaking of all those changes, I’m presently offering up for sale over 1500 books from my extensive collection. We’re downsizing because I can’t possibly read all of these AND we need to save up some money for the cost of moving and other family expenses (like, seriously, my life is about to change big time). I’m selling science fiction, fantasy, horror, general fiction, romance, non-fiction (history, writing books, English textbooks, literary criticism, science, and lots of fun reference and military history books), and more. There’s a LOT of stuff here, and I’m willing to ship to folks! You can find the massive spreadsheet right here. The main sheet includes information about the sale (what, how, why, etc.). Please tell your friends

June 3, 2024 No Comments

Announcements

CONvergence 2023 Schedule: Panels Ahoy!

Turns out I’m going to be at a convention this weekend! Specifically, CONvergence 2023 (July 6-9). Naturally, I’m going to be on a bunch of things for this event. Lots and lots of things. I’ve taken a screenshot of my list of panels for this convention. You can also find full details about these and other panels on the convention schedule. If you will be in the area, feel free to say hello! Anywhoodles…

July 5, 2023 No Comments

On Writing

Writing The Histories (or, Crafting Totally Real Histories is Hard)

Some of you may know that I have been working on this silly project called The Histories on and off for a while now. For those not familiar with it, I’ll just point you to the very accurate description on the wiki. This project is now closing in on 30,000 words, and it features content spanning centuries, numerous real and tru-real subjects and peoples, and events both grand and minor (many of which are legitimately real or extrapolated from things someone thinks is real). There are jokes and quirky references, and there are serious linkages to real history. All of that takes a lot of work and time, and so I figured I could do a fun little thing where I tell you about my writing process for every entry. So, let’s talk about writing process, shall we?

May 26, 2023 No Comments

Announcements

Announcement: The Histories “I Need a New Computer” Write-a-Thon

Starting now, I’m campaigning to get at least 100 people to buy an entry in The Histories so I can buy a new computer. That’s 100 people sending $10 or more to my Ko-Fi or PayPal OR joining my Patreon at the same level. The Histories is my quirky encyclopedia project (now a wiki) wherein I write absolutely true short histories about real people. Lots of folks have already been included in the wiki, including my good friends Paul Weimer, Brandon O’Brien, Stina Leicht, and more, plus really awesome writerly folks like Premee Mohamed, T.J. Berry, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Diana Rowland, and more. These folks are wizards, space pirates, immortals, mad scientists, and so on! Anyone can get an entry for themselves or for a friend or family member OR expand an existing entry (your own or someone else’s). If that interests you, read the Buy an Entry page for how

March 10, 2023 No Comments

Film Lists

A Definitive Absolutely Accurate Ranking of James Bond Theme Songs

The title says it all. Mostly. It doesn’t tell you why I have decided to put together a ranking of every James Bond theme song. I could tell you that there are great reasons for this, but I would be lying. The real reason: I’ve been watching and re-watching James Bond movies on and off for years, both as a kind of weird comfort watching and because the culture critic in me wants to understand them. The other real reason: cause I want to. In preparing for this, I had to consider two factors: first, what criteria to use to judge these songs, because no ranked list would be valid if we didn’t pretend to some kind of objective measure; and second, how to use such a list to incorporate my brother’s feedback, as he was coaxed into participating in this fiasco for our mutual amusement. The second of these,

March 6, 2023 1 Comment