Wendy Wheeler Miscellaneous Interests

Here's the page for all those interests I couldn't squeeze into anywhere else!

High Tech in Austin, Texas

My day jobs were in Austin, Texas, in doing strategic communication for high tech. I finally left my high-tech content provider for Micron Technology in December 2022. Just previous to my Micron job, I worked on an exciting new technology at Dell, the Internet of Things. I spent 9 years in the Marketing Communications Department for the Financial Services Group of CSC. Thanks in part to teaching myself html and making an electronic portfolio page, from 1997 through 2003, I built the Marketing Department for Austin-based Planview, Inc., a high-end project management software company.

Austin is such a great town--lots of art and theater, writers and performers all around, tons of live music, with lakes and rivers and the hill country all around. Now that I've retired, I'm moving to Granbury, Texas so I can write and travel full time.

Game Design -- A New Skill

Jennifer Evans and I had an idea for a collectible card game--like Magic: The Gathering and oh-so-many others. What we made was pretty cool! Our prototype was in redesign twice for Wizards of the Coast in Seattle, the multi-million dollar game company who produced Magic. Instead, they released the Pokemon card games. (Is there any money in that?:)

We hope to get back to promoting our card game again someday. Many thanks to the game-playing folks of Austin, Texas who game tested for us and were very vocal about what they liked and what else they wanted to see! They've signed non-disclosure agreements so you can't pump them for information, but warm wishes especially to: Fred Askew, Bill Call, Robert Gatliff, Jim Gould, Marty Hoff, Clayton Hunter, Jay Lake, Robert Lawrence, Stephen McNally, Eric McVicker, Jeff Shaevel, Kevin Triplett, and Russ Williams. And to folks who discussed generalities with us: Don Webb and Allen Varney.

WebComix!

My erstwhile Austin friend, Russ Williams, became fascinated with on-line comics and created his own wacky and ecletic site, www.koFightClub.com for a couple of years. I made a few guest strips to keep his content fresh when he traveled sometimes. These things are conceived, written, drawn and produced by me--and are about how funny (ha-ha AND strange) web comix artists and gamers seem to be.

Comix 1

For the whole "True Life vs Web Comix" Strip #1, click here.

Comix 2

For the whole "True Life vs Web Comix" Strip #2, click here.

Comix 3

For the whole "Hair-Raising Tales of RussCon," click here.

Comix 4

For the whole "Math Geek Joke," click here.

Myths and Archetypes

I was a sometime member of the Jung Society of Austin, a student of Joseph Campbell Mythology, and attended both of the Mythic Journeys Conferences held in Atlanta on the anniversary of Campbell's birthday. I also use the structures of myths in my own fiction and screenwriting, and have been lucky enough to workshop multiple times with Chris Vogler, author of The Writers Journey. As a kid I read every myth or legend of every culture I could find, which probably accounts for much of my writing style now.

Metaphysics!

Yep, I'm a meditator. Gotsa lotsa intuition, which has pushed me to do things I didn't believe I could (travel, be gregarious, teach creativity classes). I believe in energy fields, applied kineseology, reincarnation, aromatherapy, Feng Shui. I studied dream analysis with an Edgar Cayce ARE study group for over 20 years, and have done some amazing analyses.

Okay, yes. I have a hard time with some of the woo-woo New Age theories, too. Still, your reality is your reality and that's totally okay in my book. We all have a spiritual dimension to us that is grander and more connected than the puny ego selves we have here on earth. And the Law of Grace supercedes the Law of Karma. Meaning: Just accept your forgiveness and get over how badass you are.

World Travel

London and South England, May 2000. Me sitting and wishing (hence, the closed eyes) on the "Wishing Rock" at Avebury in southern England. The standing stones in this tiny Wiltshire village are sooooo incredible and powerful. What a cool place Glastonbury is! J4 and I had an amazing 3.5 days there staying in a beautiful and funky B&B on the path to the Tor.

Paris, November 2000. Me on the Champs Elysee, the famous main street in Paris, with my German coworkers bowing before me. It's pretty dark, but you can still see the Arch of Triumph behind us. I traveled alone, but I had a good time, spoke French okay, was treated well by Parisians, saw tons of gorgeous art, ate great food, and did the Paris thing!

	Malta, Italy and London 2012. Another visit with the Kirks who are now stationed at the American embassy in Malta. This is me on the ancient Maltese coast in Bugibba with the salt pans carved into the rock behind me and then sailboats on the Mediterranean out in the distance. Such history there! I took a daytrip by ferry to Sicily, then returned to awesome London for a few days. Fun times!

Chichen Itza 2005. A friend and I took a cruise to Mexico and the Caribbean. Only they decided not to take us to Honduras or Belize at the last minutes. Awful Norweigan Cruiselines! But they did get us to Progresso so we could investigate the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza. You could totally climb the Pyramid of the Sun while we were there, so that's my tired and happy ass climbing up.

Photography

Black & White Photography Here's a photo I took of some kids at Extend-A-Care. It won a Silver Award in the United Way National Photo Contest! I enjoy photography, having studied it at UT art school under Gary Winogrand, but don't get to do it much anymore...
Another Black & White Photo This photo, despite the weathered look of the wood, was taken at an amusement park in San Marcos, TX! It won me a 1st prize in a local contest (in which I won 3rd prize also--must've been a slow year). It's mostly a study in textures.

My Babies

My furry, whiskered "children"
Like so many writers, I am usually the proud "parent" of kitty cats. I currently have two big purrsonality boy cats; Talkative silver tabby Buzzy (named because he purrs soooo loud!) and baby Tyler (a gray tuxedo boy), whom I believe is a scientific cat because he reverse-engineers all his toys. Here are my 2 boys sharing (!! unusual!) the cat bed.