backend engineer · anime nerd · web novel writer
I'm a backend software engineer with about four and a half years of experience, mostly in distributed systems and API design. I like building things that are simple, correct, and boring in the best possible way.
Outside of work, I go to the gym, keep up with global news, watch anime and the occasional fantasy show or film. I tend to prefer warm spaces, cosy evenings, and very good tea.
This site is a place to put down things I'd otherwise lose to scattered notes. No theme, no niche — just whatever's on my mind.
I'm also a reader. I grew up on Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Famous Five, Agatha Christie, Goosebumps — the usual suspects. Somewhere along the way that expanded into manga and light novels, then web novels and the occasional fantasy or sci-fi epic. The stories I gravitate towards tend to feature capable protagonists who try to do the right thing, even when it's hard. You might know the term competency porn — that's exactly it. Characters who are genuinely good at what they do, and watching them grow and navigate the world is the whole point.
I've recently started writing my own web novel. Slowly, which is fine — it's as much about learning to write and tell stories as it is about finishing anything.
A slice-of-life isekai following Alfred Steelheart as he builds a new life in the magical city of Elysion.
A wandering frog wizard, a young priestess, a false hero, and a fallen vampire queen walk across a dying world toward the Last Library — where forgotten gods sleep and the world dreams of itself.
A publicly humiliated professor at the Royal College may be the only person who can see the threats gathering beneath Westmere.
Valen Ashford transmigrates into the body of a doomed side character in his favourite web novel and has to survive — and thrive — in a world tearing itself apart.