Greetings! John Winkelman here. I am a martial arts instructor in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I have a day job as a web and mobile developer. As I am also a writer, instead of creating a long, elegantly crafted biography, here is a list of pertinent and interesting information:
- Currently live in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
- Instructor of Tai Chi Praying Mantis Kung Fu and Tai Chi Jeung under Master Yen Hoa Lee.
- Part of the Grand River Poetry Collective
- Former Director at Caffeinated Press independent publishing company.
- Former Managing Editor of The 3288 Review semiannual literary journal.
- Graduated from Springport High School in 1987.
- Graduated from Grand Valley State University in 1993.
- Bachelor of Arts, Majoring in Liberal Studies, with emphasis on Russian Studies.
- Minor in Advertising and Public Relations.
- Other places to find me online:
- Fediverse/Mastodon (@johnwinkelman@wandering.shop)
- Bluesky (@johnwinkelman.bsky.social)
- Hive Social as @johnwinkelman
- Flickr
- Goodreads
- Amazon.com author page
- Library Thing (author page)
- Bookwyrm
- NaNoWriMo
- CodePen
- LinkTree
[For all of my social media accounts, I insta-block bigots, bullies, bros, brownshirts, bootlicks, and trolls. My judgment in these matters is infallible, so if you can’t find me on one of these accounts, it’s time to re-think some of your life choices. Being called “woke” or an “SJW” is a compliment.]
About Ecce Signum
I created my first website, with a tilde address, back in 1998. At that time it was mostly a place for me to experiment with HTML with no particular goal in mind. I first started blogging in late 1999, but those earlier versions are lost somewhere in the mists of time, and also not discoverable on the Internet Archive.
The name of this blog, Ecce Signum, comes from a line in Shakespeare‘s Henry IV part I, as relayed by Evan S. Connell in his magnificent book-length poem Notes From a Bottle Found on the Beach at Carmel.