My Lore
I write weird fiction, sword & sorcery, and dark fantasy; prose and
poetry.
I also design narrative puzzle games and ergodic fiction.
Who am I?
This site exists to help me answer this question. Online I go by Gildrom, but my real name is Zoltán, Zoli for short. I’m a quarter of a century old. I call Europe my home.
In high school, I studied media and filmmaking, but I was left unsure whether to continue with it. I spent one semester in film school at a reasonably good university, but after much disappointment, I left and pivoted careers.
My other love, besides media, is the English language 🇬🇧, so naturally, I turned to language teaching as a viable path forward. So now I study English and history at a more distinguished, albeit much more demanding university.
More about me...
I enjoy heavy metal and rock-adjacent music, anything from Alkaloid to Zappa. And while outside this spectrum, I find the music of Aurora simply delightful. Anyhow, my favourite band will always be Iron Maiden. See my playlist.
Although I’m not a huge gamer, I do enjoy mystery and narrative puzzle games, like Blue Prince. I’m generally a fan of older titles such as Morrowind, Thief, Dark Souls, and World of Warcraft (vanilla). Gildrom Qeeney was the name of my first RP character I made. I’ve kept the name as my nom de plume online.
I have an interest in literature, but more for its poetics and semiotics and less so for its aesthetic appeal. What I find exciting about a text is what it’s doing with language and meaning. “A poem is not a puzzle to be solved.” Sure, and yet many texts can be approached as hermeneutic riddles. See my library.
I think most people who know me find me weird...
I don’t really mind though; they are probably right...
Why Do I Write?
To better my English. While I subscribe to Krashen’s input hypothesis, I also realise that simply relying on natural input available through everyday life and media can only get you so far. To go further you must seek more strenuous, though rarely as compelling texts. I supplement this reading practice with a practice of writing.
I also cannot deny that I find writing (the ideation, the tactile feeling of pressing keys, the act of creation) tremendously enjoyable. I approach language as a game, writing as play, and my preeminent priority is ever my own entertainment.