BIOGRAPHY

C.S. Bernard is the name of an American FanFiction member who specializes in, but not limited to, Sonic the Hedgehog fan-fictions. Originally known as Aiglon15 and later as Friend of Republicanism, Bernard later chose his current name for “professional-amateur” purposes.

Bernard is a college graduate with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in History and a minoring in Religion. Raised Southern Baptist, he unofficially declared himself to be an “Independent” or “Nondenominational” Christian in 2006-2007. His writing style, as it is today, was largely shaped during his college years writing essays and speeches for classes. In turn, the things that he learned while writing on FanFiction helped influence his academic prose-style. Today, his academic and recreational styles have fused into the method most recognize as his own. Further, his stories often try to examine deeper subjects in history, philosophy and religion, where proper. Politically, he is “centrist,” though raised within conservative traditions and ideals and retains certain loyalties to them.

Philosophically, Bernard’s inspirations range across the spectrum, though he presently favors the “Absurdist” school and “Existentialism,” with special interest in the writings of Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, among others. These influences may or may not show themselves in his works, especially Existentialism in earlier releases since the fan-fiction Between Treason and Truth Revealed, an Interlude. As of Speedster Eliminators, Absurdism has found greater influence in his work.

While Bernard is like most other inheritors of the Information Age and actively interested in considerable amounts of popular culture, Sonic the Hedgehog has always occupied a special spot in his heart since childhood. Though not as “passionate” about the franchise as he was when a child, Bernard retains a considerable fondness for this most unusual of characters. More than anything, exposure to the larger group of Sonic the Hedgehog fans has greatly changed his attitude about dealing with (or avoiding) others when the subject comes up. For a few years, disillusionment had set in and had turned him against most Sonic the Hedgehog fans and made the word “fan” a dirty word to him. Today, he finds the “fandom” ripe for satire, “through every fault of its own,” himself included. In the end, he is still proud to consider himself a fan of Sega’s notorious mascot, regardless of his age or the attitudes of others. Though over twenty-one years of age, himself, Bernard’s target demographic has always ranged from pre-teens to young adults, yet regardless of physical ages he always encourages anyone with the “heart of a child” to read his stories.

Realizing that his interpretation of the characters from Sonic the Hedgehog materials are his own, Bernard always worries about self-promoting his stories. As an average fan, like most others with little input on the franchise itself, Bernard wants to have fun with his stories and those who read them and not become too pretentious or egotistical. Still even if all of his writing is done in good fun, he does follow the maxim, “Anything worth doing, is worth doing right.” To that end, his main goal is to write stories that take themselves serious enough that they try not to condescend to children or insult the intelligence of older readers. Even fun requires a little bit of seriousness.

Lastly, notwithstanding that Sonic the Hedgehog, himself, and Dr. Eggman – as he is currently known around the world – are his favorite characters, Bernard always strives to give each and every Sonic the Hedgehog character he uses a respectful portrayal. He does so because he feels the spirit of good story-telling demands it. Fictional characters only become entertaining when they are believed to be alive, regardless of whether or not they actually are. To that end, he feels this is necessary to subtly shake a fist in the face of more vociferous fans that always target a specific person within stories as being the ruination of the franchise or the story being told.

Thus, in so many words, is what is known about C.S. Bernard. The only other thing he wishes others to know that he wishes them happy reading and encourages them to read for recreation, not just his stories but anything and everything that anyone can. Good luck and happy reading!

RESOURCES

Wikipedia: My favorite online encyclopedia, though be careful, they still have trouble with keeping their data accurate.

Google: One of the best search engines around, if not the best.

YouTube: A handy reference for popular culture that may have connections to my stories or news articles and editorials.

Mobius Encyclopedia: The best resource and reference guide to everyone and everything in the Sonic the Hedgehog comics produced by Archie Publications.

TVTropes: My favorite place to investigate and explore the ideas, emotions and concepts expressed in fictional (and sometimes non-fictional) media.

ALSO AVAILABLE ON

AIM: CSBernard03

MSN: CSBernard

YIM: csbernard03

ICQ: CSBernard