Ever since Eric's grandparents plunked a hefty, illustrated edition of the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia in front of him, and his parents introduced him to Lord of the Rings, Eric has been fascinated with other worlds, whether those found in fiction, history, or the places he's traveled to. But his interests took him to many other places and career paths before a helping of disillusionment and burnout pushed him to give writing a serious chance. Between his background in too many different social sciences and a few years living and working abroad, his life experiences (hopefully) give him the inspiration he needs to create worlds with complex cultures and nuanced conflicts. He likes to think that no experience is wasted if one takes the time to figure out what one has learned from it.   Most of Eric's short stories and writing projects-to-be are set in Tahuum Itaqiin, where intellectual hubris and unhealed societal divisions have left a seemingly prosperous world woefully unprepared for the eldritch forces and dark schemes that threaten to tear it apart. He also blogs about fiction and worldbuilding at Sad but Building Worlds, and he's written a nonfiction article on the lessons that Shanghai's colonial history offers for worldbuilding, to be published in the next issue of Worldbuilding Magazine. When he's not writing, worldbuilding, or trying desperately to catch up with his studies, he also cooks and hikes with his partner, watches horror movies (usually without his partner), and binge-reads Wikipedia or TvTropes. He's trying to spend less time on social media, though this gets tricky as, like most other aspiring authors, he does want people outside his immediate social circle to be aware that his work exists.