Personal Statement

     I am Trevor Brogan. In my first attempt at college I declared my major to be Computer Science, but soon discovered I lacked the mathematical acumen to grasp more than the basics of computer programming.  I realized that although I had admirable computer skills and a love of video games, my interests were more in the stories those games told than the mechanics. When I returned to school, I changed my major to English and began searching for the type of literature that I would enjoy studying the most.  I’ve taken both general survey courses and courses on particular periods, including contemporary American Lit, the Bible as literature, and Medieval British Literature.  My conclusion is that I prefer older stories, those that draw heavily on folklore and legend, and stories with a fantastic or speculative twist.  I am less interested in old political tracts and thinly-veiled social commentaries.  I think that a writer’s message can reach a wider audience if it is carried by an entertaining story, although I do acknowledge that blunt, straightforward language can be just as valuable.

     I take a lot of pride and motivation from my accomplishments in gaining a little internet popularity with my early creative work.  Throughout High School I worked alongside my brother to create a webcomic based on popular video game characters.  The art quality was nothing to brag about, but the writing attracted enough regular readers to keep the comic in the top 100 of a comic ranking site for the latter half of its run.  More recently, my hobby writing on Tumblr and some fan fiction websites under the pseudonym CTVulpin has acquired its own small group of fans.  Those small proofs of success have driven me to constantly improve my skills and submit original material to UVU’s speculative fiction journal, Warp & Weave.  I have been published in that journal twice so far, once in the Fall Semester of 2013 and again in Winter 2015.  My first short story was set in an alternate medieval Europe where heavenly angels take indirect action against corrupt clergy.  The second story takes place in a world populated by talking animals with human-like societies and problems.
   Currently, I run a blog called "Nexus Fox Writings Studio," which you will find a link to on the main page of this portfolio.  The main feature of my blog is Down the Stacks, which is published weekly or bi-weekly depending on my other obligations.  In Down the Stacks, I provide introductions and brief reviews of speculative fiction books I have discovered at my local library, with a focus on books that I've never heard of before but I feel are near the quality level of bestsellers.  Occasionally, I will also write posts on fiction writing topics of particular interest to me.

     I enjoy researching and have a superb memory for details.  I particularly like seeking out little-known facts about the history and inspiration behind popular stories and lesser-known variations thereof.  I can identify common literary tropes, character types, and plot developments as I encounter them.   Outside the realm of literature, I can quickly gather information on any assigned topic and compile it into a concise, well-written summary within a day at the longest.  This skill was put to great use when I worked for the tech support company iTOK.net.  I wrote the copy for all of the pages of the company’s redesigned website, except for the legal pages, in less than the three-month period the company had budgeted for the project.  I also wrote a couple of how-to blog articles about basic computer care which impressed my manager so much she created a new “Knowledge Base” section of the website just for me to write more “tips and tricks” pieces into.  I have a foundation in literary theory and tend to favor a basic deconstructionist approach in my casual reading.