Sly Fox is not my real name

Honestly.

It's not.

My real name is "Lee Borkman", which is not so catchy, though still a name to be proud of. I have a bit of history, out there in the world, doing interesting things. I've played with major rock bands, sung with the Australian Opera Company, won University Medals and academic awards, been president of the Montessori Association of Australia. I have even been quoted alongside Bertrand Russell on philosophy, and Richard Dawkins on memetics. But that was all, I must admit, *many* years ago. For the last decade and more, I have worked in your basic office, in your basic Government department, doing nothing very exciting. Sure, I've dabbled in online communities - was briefly prominent in an obscure sub-field of web application development - but really I have just been getting on with mundane matters, helping raise four kids, and letting the world pass me by.

So now here I am, trying something a little different. It sounds unimpressive and commonplace, but yes, I've been writing iPhone apps. Sitting at my kitchen table, here in rural Australia, among the snakes, the wallabies and the kids, trying to take some strain off the family finances. I do enjoy this kind of thing, and now, what is more, a creation of mine has gone out into the world and is sending back a little bit of money every week, helping us make ends meet. And Hallelujah!- there are people out there in the world - a few thousand, at last count - who are actually playing the little game that I wrote. I'd like *more* people to play it, of course, and I'd be very happy if money started coming in a little faster, but I'm not comfortable playing the salesman, and that is largely that.

And that's probably the initial impetus behind this new blog - it gives me a place to put a prominent ad for my game - that's it up there, at the top on the right - but I'm going to try and add a little value, try to say something worth reading - something about my travails in writing and publishing games as an independent developer, about life in my kitchen; much of things I admire and less of things that I don't.

I've had help in all of this, of course - while I do all the design and coding, Francesca does all the hard stuff, and the *two* of us are really Sly Fox. But yes, what about that name? It comes from that scrawled fox face at the top of the page, the silly little drawing that has become something of a signature for me. I have doodled thousands of them over the years, and no doubt there are many thousands yet to come. A comforting, and sobering, thought.

More coming soon,
See you then,
Lee
Sly Fox