Miles Schneiderman is a freelance…everything, basically. Having never fully understood the concepts of “getting a job” or “finding a career,” he is happy to accept money from anyone willing to pay him to do the things he does best. As it happens, those things are primarily writing, podcasting, and all the annoying things that come alongside writing and podcasting, like editing, fact-checking, proofreading, and production. He has been published in multiple places, including Yes! Magazine (which is impressive because it’s a well-respected journal of social and political solutions) and the science fiction blog Universes of the Mind (which is less impressive because it’s just a blog that he started one time). He is also a co-host of the Unspoiled Podcast, where he covers the Dark Tower series and Game of Thrones with Natasha Kingston. He worked in child care for over a decade as a means of acquiring a regular paycheck, but has recently found a more lucrative job doing…something. He’s not actually sure what he does or why he’s paid to do it, but he’s learned to not ask questions about that sort of thing.
Miles has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science from Northern Arizona University, which he acquired in his late 20s after spending his early 20s dicking around and getting kicked out of the University of Arizona. Twice. He has since learned that he hates the idea of being a journalist and that it wouldn’t pay him anything even if he wanted to be one, so that might not have been the best idea. He spent most of his college experience (the successful one, not the first two) learning about radio, and is the former station manager of KJACK, NAU’s student radio station. He has since learned that radio is a dying industry in which there are no jobs to be had, so that also might not have been the best idea. He does podcasts because he can’t just go on the air whenever he wants to anymore, and it’s secretly killing him inside. The podcasts themselves, of course, are almost certainly not the best idea.
Miles also has a wife, Sharon, whom he acquired in his early 30s after spending all of his 20s most assuredly not dicking around with anybody. She’s sweet and beautiful and smart and wonderful and, for whatever reason, thoroughly in love with him. Like, “watches pro wrestling with him” levels of in love with him. Again, he doesn’t ask questions about that sort of thing. He just loves her back with the intensity of a thousand suns (figuratively) while she catches him up on Doctor Who. They live together in their hometown of Tucson, Arizona, under the warmth of a thousand suns (literally), a place Miles once believed he had escaped, only to be dragged back by the horrible tendrils of a miraculous fairy tale love story that makes him unbelievably happy. Despite this tragedy, he somehow finds the will to go on.
The most tragic thing about Miles’ marriage is that is has made him somewhat less angry about basically everything, but the torrential flood of sappy contentment has not managed to completely douse that brave, resilient flame of hate. Some of the things he still manages to contemptuously despise include:
- Game of Thrones — not the first three seasons, but everything after and especially Season 5
- Global Force Wrestling, aka Impact Wrestling, aka Total Non-Stop Action Wrestling
- DC Comics and all its works, except Vertigo
- The Minnesota Vikings, the Dallas Cowboys, and the Pittsburgh Steelers
- Video games that aren’t either fighting games or games released at least a decade ago
- Neoliberal capitalism and the crimes it has committed against the world
- Kale
Miles met Dan Mulkerin in college (one of the unsuccessful times, not the last one) because his not-actually-blood-related sister is super outgoing. Years later, their friendship helped bring about the Smash Fiction Podcast. So, you know, this whole thing is Miles’ sister’s fault, really. Yell at her.
Smash Fiction 