MiembroRossStein

I have amassed an eclectic library over the last 25 years. I read little contemporary work (with some notable exceptions). Overall I focus on fiction from the 15th through the early 20th century, primarily Russian, Eastern European, and French literature.

I'm a trainer, pilot, amateur blacksmith, golfer, smoker, drinker, reader, and writer with an affinity for travel, rare steaks, and solitude. In late 2019 I decided to take a crack at this writing thing full time.

I am influenced by the brooding Russian greats of the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries (Mikhail Bulgakov retaining a special place in his heart), and I also finds comfort and inspiration in the works of the Decadents, Dante, Georges Perec, Thomas Bernhard, Kurt Vonnegut, Denis Diderot, Jack Kerouac, and countless others. I often find myself in awe of the lyrics of Nick Cave.

In 2019 I established my imprint Gray Area Press under which I publish my own novels. My first work, Diary of a Heretic, received a favorable review from Kirkus and was named an Indie Book We Love by Lovereading. My second novel, The Further Travels and Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, a socio-political satire, was released in December 2023.

In 2021 I expanded my scope to begin reprinting very old and obscure works of English literature from the 11th-16th century that reside in the public domain. These can usually only be found as bound collections of barely readable photocopies of the originals. In my Gray Area Press Historical Reprint Series, I manually typeset these originals and provide an additional "translated" version that updates the text to modern English, thus making the work more accessible for the modern reader.