User:Thuvan Dihn

The real Thuvan Dihn was the Jeddak of Ptarth around the time of the American Civil War, and given the longevity of Barsoomians, he's probably still reigning. Then again, there never was a real Thuvan Dihn.

In case it matters to anyone, here is a summary of the skills and experience that the real me brings to my pro bono editing for the world's most widely consulted encyclopedia. I have a BA with a double major in linguistics and anthropology (University of Rochester, 1974) and a PhD in English (University of Washington, 1997). I taught in the English Department at the University of Washington for 7 years, providing courses in expository writing, short story writing, critical theory, and 20th century literature. I've also worked for 4 years as a legal proofreader, and for 20 years as a technical editor (5 years on computer science publications and 15 years so far on medical writing). In addition, I've written 3 science fiction novels that were published by Ace Books between 1986 and 1990.

Apart from my ability to take the English language apart and put it back together again in the dark -- more or less intact -- I have moderate expertise, and exercise reasonable judgment, in the fields of ancient Mediterranean history and prehistory, Classical studies, the Latin language, linguistics, and archeology. I am fortunate enough to have studied the latter subject with Rene Millon, one of the excavators of Teotihuacan, and Stuart Piggott, one of the excavators of just about everything else: both brilliant men who shone their considerable light on the most ancient past.

Given my science-fictional bent, I'm also an avid reader and lay commentator in the burgeoning field of exoplanetary astronomy.

For Wikipedia I tend to do copy editing, which often happens when I need to look something up for my regular editing and find that the article on my topic of interest is disorganized. But I periodically focus more tightly on a specific subject, with my curiosity ranging from star clusters to the pre-Roman civilizations of Italy to television. I'm certain all that makes me a geek, and a bookish one to boot.