Eric Burns (blogger) - Education

Education

Burns was born and raised in Fort Kent, Maine. He attended college at Boston University for two years before leaving school and moving to Ithaca, New York, where he worked as a professional actor and as a temporary worker for Manpower Inc. At one point, he lived on the top floor of a high rise directly on the Ithaca Commons. Burns later set Gossamer Commons in Ithaca, loosely based on his time living on the Commons. He returned to school, attending the University of Maine at Fort Kent, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, Cum Laude. It was Burns's education and training in literary criticism that informed his eventual move into webcomics criticism. Burns was one of the most prolific Superguy writers during this time, eventually contributing just shy of a million words to the creative writing project. Burns also became a published poet during these years, most notably in the Black Fly Review.

Superguy ultimately led Burns to his first short fiction publication credits, for the short lived Mythic Heroes magazine.

After graduation, Burns returned to Ithaca for a time, including a stint as an actor for the Sterling Renaissance Festival in nearby Fair Haven, New York. After a year, he moved to Seattle, Washington, before moving back to Maine and ultimately to New Hampshire. During this period, Burns became involved with the In Nomine Role Playing Game published by Steve Jackson Games, ultimately writing both for the game and for Pyramid Magazine. Burns became one of the principal writers of Sidewinder Wild West Adventures, a d20 role playing game published by Citizen Games that was nominated for an ENnie Award. Burns is listed as a contributing author on Sidewinder: Recoiled, a d20 Modern based sequel produced by Dog House Rules which won the 2004 ENnie Gold award for Best Electronic Product. However, Burns claims little to no involvement with the second work. Burns has also worked for Decipher.

In 1999, Burns began work on Some Days in the Life of Eric Alfred Burns, an online journal and diary that, while sharing many aspects with a more modern blog, tended less to the incidental and more to essays and commentary. While not as popular as Burns's later work with Websnark, the journal did ultimately attract about three thousand regular daily readers, particularly during a poignant run as Burns chronicled his battle with congestive heart failure induced by idiopathic cardiomyopathy, as well as a car accident in 2000.