Hobbies...your's?

[Comshaw]

There is a whole range of authors who frequent this place. Some are professionals. To be clear, those are the ones who make money by selling their stories. Then there are those like me, hobby storytellers who do it for fun. To both: other than writing, what other hobbies do you enjoy? I have a few.

Reading of course is one of them. I love reading and expanding my store of facts and information. I suspect that most who write also love to read.

Right now, I've trying to get my boat ready for Halibut season (starts April 7th). I have crab and shrimp pots I set out during those seasons. I love being out on the water, miles from shore, a gentle swell rocking the boat. Sometimes I don't even care if I catch a fish.

I also ride motorcycles (dirt and street) and have for a very, very long time (53 years and counting).

I used to hunt, but I gave that up. A long story which I won't go in to. I do like to shoot and have numerous firearms. My favorites are my black power rifle and cap and ball pistols.

A couple of years ago I built myself a forge and have started to try my hand at making Damascus steel and a few knives from it. I'm not very good at it yet.

That's some of the things I do as hobbies. Yours?

Comshaw

 

[lovecraft68]

Comic books, both collecting and selling
Pretty much enjoy anything horror
Martial arts

So...basically everything I was into back when I was 14. I haven't changed, just have more money to spend on the first two hobbies.

Lit only hobby=trolling incels.

 

[HeyAll]

Outside of writing, nothing fancy: tv/movies, daily outdoor running, video games, reading crime thrillers.

 

[Handley_Page]

Amateur Radio, Photography, tinkering in my shed.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Carpentry, right now. I'm converting a garage into a studio which involves a complete fit of ceiling, wooden floors and walls. Also the insertion of a second hand set of French windows and doors into one wall. My son in law is a sparky, so I can also do the electrics and he'll check them.

Also a tube audio fanatic, build my own tube amps (hi-fi and guitar amps) - part of the studio build will be a copy of the JBL Paragon speaker:

https://www.usaudiomart.com/details...d44000-vintage-speaker-system/images/2068010/

Vinyl, obviously, digital when I must.

Also, drawing, although I've not done that for a while - I've got some drawings posted here, I'm still finding my style. I love charcoal, but my later stuff has been more about line than tone, so more pencil.

About 2,000 books, which I need to get rid of. Eventually. I keep re-reading them - lots of modern history, art, cinema, literature, poetry. Very eclectic, I'm constantly reading.

 

[NightPorter]

Reading, Video games, Target shooting, Horror movies, Hiking.

 

[Lifestyle66]

Yard and tree work in the spring through fall. I can't sit still when my wife and I are sitting on the dock. I end up working on trees while she reads.

I.T. stuff, working on my digitized movie collections, file server and web site, network (four routers) or recording other movies to take when we travel (sometimes without of Internet access).

And sex... in front of the fireplace, in front of a big mirror in the bedroom, out on the boat, or on the kitchen counters (I sanitize them afterwards.) So, I guess that's "research" for story material. Yeah, research is my hobby.

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

Riding, both show arena & dressage, and cross-country eventing; I have two arena-trained horses, and I take them over the jumps every morning if I can. My other main hobbies are cooking, especially Cajun food from my youth growing up in deepest Louisiana, you'll find a ton of my contributions in Russ's Restaurant and Recipe's thread here in the AH, and I love to take part in track days with my husband. My husband restores and races classic British roadsters and sports cars, and I used to race as part of a team with him in an historic touring-car championship series in the UK, we drove a matched pair of 1963 Alpine Renault A110's he rescued, rebuilt, and restored. My other great passion is our dogs; we have 5 dogs, 3 huge mutant black Labrador gun-dogs, a golden Spanador, and a gigantic jet black Newfoundland.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

Jeez, long list...

Writing, both here and other types of literature, obviously. Just a given for all of us, right?

Greybeard anime- Uchuu Senkan Yamato/Star Blazers, Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets, Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Urotsukidoji, etc

RPG's. Started with Dungeons & Dragons in the late 70's, currently the GM for a Warhammer Fantasy 4e game. Played just about everything at one time or another.

Video games, been an addict since the early 80s.

Tabletop games, mostly Warhammer 40k, these days. I grew up playing board games, got into Risk and Stratego. After that, Avalon Hill games like Third Reich and Squad Leader were my addiction.

Been doing martial arts for over 40 years now, but not really a hobby, so to speak.

Silent movies. Metropolis is my favourite movie of all time.

I love building models, although that's mostly related to 40k these days. Currently working on a Knight Titan. He's blue and white, decorated with blue maple leafs, has the number 27 on his carapace and fights on behalf of House Sittler.

Do Guinness, absinthe, and single malt scotch count as hobbies?

Languages. I love speaking different languages. I'm a terminal nerd, so yes, I speak fluent Klingon. I also speak Quenya, Dothraki, and Dovahzul. Why? jI'IQ.

I'm a Wagnerphile and a total metalhead, that might count as a hobby. Vocally, I'm a heldentenor. Despite this, I'm also a Bay City Rollers fan (long and weird story)

I'm not sure this is a hobby, so much as a lifestyle, but I LOVE punching Nazis, and the Nazi-adjacent. Probably the most righteous aspect of my life by light years.

Am I well-rounded? Well, my belly these days thinks so.

 

[Voboy]

Hiking. Shooting. Collecting things. Playing guitars. Building ukuleles.

 

[NolaNM]

Reading and writing, yes. Just had a first story published here so that’s a bit of a confidence boost.

Cooking. The kitchen is often my refuge and I love trying new things. I’m making a corned beef as I type and really enjoy merging southwestern and Cajun/Creole recipes. And I love Thai food, but others make it better than I, so if eating Thai food qualifies as a hobby, add it to the list. I’m a great cook but a horrible baker. One requires measurement and the other requires touch- I’m much better with touch (and the other senses.)

Photography. I belong to several camera clubs/groups and especially enjoy practicing travel, street, night/astro and landscape photography. Headed to a night photography workshop in Utah next month and cannot wait.

Cross stitch when I have time, but I do love the relaxing mantra of it. Plus it’s great when I’m feeling “stabby”. Lol- and better than actually stabbing someone.

 

[SimonDoom]

Writing goofy sex stories, of course.

Reading. I like to alternate fiction and nonfiction. Right now I'm reading nonfiction.

Running. I ran many races in my 40s and won or placed in my age group a few times but then I get injured for a long time. I am slowly training to race again.

Hiking and long backpack trips in the mountains.

Birdwatching. I started my first list of birds observed when I was 11.

Some drawing. I aim to do more and hope to publish some here.

Intermittent classical guitar playing.

And cooking. I love to cook. Especially French and Italian cuisine.

 

[pumpkindice]

Comic books, both collecting and selling

How long have you been at this hobby? I purchased my first comic book, an issue of the Roy Thomas Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian, back in early 1985 when I was like 7 years old, and it's been an addiction ever since.

 

[RachelPost]

I love to read. I read everything from medical journals, nonfiction history, novels, and erotica. Not necessarily in that order

I also bicycle ride. I've done cross country trips.

 

[Blind_Justice]

Writing is one, making music another. I have a rather unhealthy obsession with giant robot toys and spend too much time playing pen&paper roleplaying games. Mostly some flavor of D&D or Cyberpunk 2020, but I'm also rather fond of Call of Cthulhu. Sadly, no one around me wants to play BattleTech.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

Writing is one, making music another. I have a rather unhealthy obsession with giant robot toys and spend too much time playing pen&paper roleplaying games. Mostly some flavor of D&D or Cyberpunk 2020, but I'm also rather fond of Call of Cthulhu. Sadly, no one around me wants to play BattleTech.

I love Battletech. Have since I began playing in the late 80's. I've considered maybe putting up erotic stories here about some mercs, or maybe some outlying unit of one of the great houses.

The Clans, not so much.

As for giant robots, Gaiking is my all-time fave, followed by Danguard Ace. I wish I still had my Shogun Warriors toys from when I was little...

 

[Rebooting]

There is a whole range of authors who frequent this place. Some are professionals. To be clear, those are the ones who make money by selling their stories. Then there are those like me, hobby storytellers who do it for fun. To both: other than writing, what other hobbies do you enjoy? I have a few.

Reading of course is one of them. I love reading and expanding my store of facts and information. I suspect that most who write also love to read.

Right now, I've trying to get my boat ready for Halibut season (starts April 7th). I have crab and shrimp pots I set out during those seasons. I love being out on the water, miles from shore, a gentle swell rocking the boat. Sometimes I don't even care if I catch a fish.

I also ride motorcycles (dirt and street) and have for a very, very long time (53 years and counting).

I used to hunt, but I gave that up. A long story which I won't go in to. I do like to shoot and have numerous firearms. My favorites are my black power rifle and cap and ball pistols.

A couple of years ago I built myself a forge and have) started to try my hand at making Damascus steel andn a few knives from it. I'm not very good at

That's some of the things I do as hobbies. Yours?

Comshaw

Made my first single shot (1803 pattern) pistol at 13, the second one was a .36 Navy Colt. I've built a few wood strip canoes, a kayak, a house, a couple Part 103 ultralights-- including a tiny flying boat with a kayak derived fuselage. But for fun I irritate incels.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Board games, bit of telly and reading. Trivia puzzles. And writing random stuff, some which ends up here.

Not much time for anything beyond writing. Looking forward to retirement...

 

[lovecraft68]

How long have you been at this hobby? I purchased my first comic book, an issue of the Roy Thomas Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian, back in early 1985 when I was like 7 years old, and it's been an addiction ever since.

I've been reading since I was old enough to read back in the glorious 70's the hey day of Marvel back when comics were fun and exciting. I collected through through the 80's and 90's and in 2002 my wife and I opened a comic book store Shadowland comics because I have a heavy horror theme. We were open until 2008 when the recession hit, but Marvel and DC decided to raise their prices and make every storyline universe wide and people couldn't afford to follow anymore. We quit while we were still making money and since then I buy and flip collections on e-bay and cons. I still collect but at this point its horror only from the 50's and up, the Superhero market has become full of grim storylines, nothing original, just reboots and have become filled with devisive politics so...sadly I dumped that genre long ago.

 

[TxRad]

Hobbies? I'm retired so.... I build small boats, 6, 8, 10 feet long. Some square, some pointy, None double pointy.

I also build yard and patio furniture, although some people use it inside. I build boat shaped bookcases and yard planters.

And I fish. I gave up hunting long ago but I still have the means and methods to put meat on the table if I had too.

And the hobby most dear to my heart, I am a dirty old man.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Gee... I used to have hobbies, still have a few.

Back in the day I used to refinish furniture. Don't anymore, no space for it now.

Almost anything to do with computers and software. I was a software engineer for 40+ years.

Graphic arts I guess. I do make my own covers for my stories and books. Not all see the light of day but it keeps me busy when I'm not writing.

Other than that I fill my time with sleeping and playing mahjong on my tablet while I watch reruns on the boob tube.

The rest of my time lately has been trying to clear up a backlog of stories but those pesky new ones keep popping up and getting in the way.

 

[oggbashan]

1. Staying alive to confuse the medics.

2. Reading and collecting books. I used to be a secondhand book dealer and had my own massive library (30,000+) now reduced to about 5,000.

3. Writing for Lit.

4. Collecting toy trains (not model railways).

5. Collecting stereo pictures - Viewnaster, Vistascreen and Lestrade (french). This was frustrating when I had double vision.


6. Supplying items to museums etc. that are specific to their collections. Four years ago I found a three-handled pewter loving cup that was awarded to the Victor Ludorum (Best sportsman) at a public school in 1915. I sent it to the school. The recipient had won it three years running. He joined the RFC as a pilot over the Western Front. He was shot down, fell 1,000 feet to crash through a hanger roof and survived, badly injured. Later he became a teacher at that school. The school contacted his descendants and gave them the cup. They replaced it with one his brother had won in 1912. Recently I found on eBay an 1875 silver-plated cup for their tennis champion. They now have that too, their oldest sporting trophy.

 

[Mastered_again]

Love to read, romance novels still my downfall
Counted cross stitch (stitching on blank canvas), usually following a pattern but not always. Everything from birth and wedding samplers, given as gifts to the parents or couple, to decorative for the house. One of my favorites attached.

 

[Comshaw]

Hobbies? I'm retired so.... I build small boats, 6, 8, 10 feet long. Some square, some pointy, None double pointy.

I also build yard and patio furniture, although some people use it inside. I build boat shaped bookcases and yard planters.

And I fish. I gave up hunting long ago but I still have the means and methods to put meat on the table if I had too.

And the hobby most dear to my heart, I am a dirty old man.

Absofuckinglutely! Why else would we be writing this stuff? I was a sex-crazed dirty young man. Where else was that going to go, yeah?

 

[pumpkindice]

I've been reading since I was old enough to read back in the glorious 70's the hey day of Marvel back when comics were fun and exciting. I collected through through the 80's and 90's and in 2002 my wife and I opened a comic book store Shadowland comics because I have a heavy horror theme. We were open until 2008 when the recession hit, but Marvel and DC decided to raise their prices and make every storyline universe wide and people couldn't afford to follow anymore. We quit while we were still making money and since then I buy and flip collections on e-bay and cons. I still collect but at this point its horror only from the 50's and up, the Superhero market has become full of grim storylines, nothing original, just reboots and have become filled with devisive politics so...sadly I dumped that genre long ago.

You got out at the perfect time. The superhero comic industry is cyclical, and I collected and read as a kid, but I stopped around the peak of the Bronze age of comics for several years in the late 90's. Quality was terrible. The aughts were a boom time, so many of the best stories ever came out in that decade, but by 2012 and with the release of the New 52, we were in a down time again.

I feel like 2008 was the peak of the last great era, after that, things slowly got worse and worse, until 2012, when it cratered. Marvel and DC seem intent on just alienating all their fans more and more as time goes on. My local LCS was bought by my comic book store guy in 2002, just like your store was, and he had to close his doors in September of last year. The publishers don't care about the retailers, or the fans, and are quite often, explicitly hostile to them. Writing good stories isn't the name of the game anymore, writing stories that get you a better job than writing comics is now. The divisive politics is absolutely at the heart of it all, and that politics just doesn't sell with fans, but it helps the creators get promoted.

I'm mostly reading retro stuff right now, and catching up on stories from the early aughts that I just missed out on while they were coming out, because of all the good stuff there was to read from that era. If modern superhero comics turn it around, like they did in the early aughts, and become fun to read again, I'll be back.

I wish to high heaven that I had been reading comics at the peak of the silver age in the 70's, like you were. Old-timers I run into at cons always wax nostalgic about that era, and it sounds like it was a blast to be a fan back then. I wax nostalgic about the early aughts, that is the silver age for my generation of fans. I remember being at comic-con in the late 90's, and looking around, and seeing that it was me and 1 other guy there. I remember wondering if we were going to have comic-con the next year. That's not a danger anymore, but it's an entertainment show now, and the comics part of it is dying slowly. I hope and pray the industry is able to get back on track.