Hello.

My name is Paul Starr.

Here are some things I have done.

β˜€οΈ = day job

🌘 = moonlighting

πŸ’– = love of the game

...as an editor. β¬‡οΈŽ

Kodansha Comics

As an editor at Kodansha Comics, I help bring manga (you know, Japanese comics) to the English-speaking world. I doubt there's another job in the world where I'd get to think about anachronistic cusses, moirΓ© issues in screen-toned shading, and the exigencies of a multi-national approvals process in the same day. I work on wonderful books with a great team and it's just the best. β˜€οΈ

Yen Press

From 2014-2016, my perversely impractical graduate degree in Japanese Literature found application outside academia as an editor on the Yen On light novel imprint. If I'd been told as a grad student that this was a job a person could actually have, I would have laughed. β˜€οΈ

The Sockdolager

My co-editor Alison Wilgus and I make The Sockdolager, a quarterly zine of genre fiction. Since 2013 I've been losing money and gaining friends in the process of publishing some very good short science fiction and fantasy. πŸ’–

PiQ Magazine

PiQ Magazine was surely the only publication likely to cover obscure indie manga releases next to features on the nascent roller derby scene next to introductions to LARPing next to complaints about the Coachella lineup. There wasn't anything else remotely like it back in 2007, and there hasn't been since. β˜€οΈ

...as a translator. β¬‡οΈŽ

Sound! Euphonium

Ayano Takeda's charming novel about kids in a Kyoto high school concert band trying to live up to their ambitions. β˜€οΈ

Haruhi Suzumiya

Nagaru Tanigawa's genre-bending story of paranormal self-discovery. Imagine if Haruki Murakami wrote YA and you're most of the way there. β˜€οΈ

Spice and Wolf

Isuna Hasekura's rigorously thought-out economic intrigue is the icing on the cake on the cake of this sentimental, slice-of-life fantasy series. β˜€οΈ

The Flowers of Evil

Shuzo Oshimi's 11-volume psychosexual drama about middle schoolers in rural Japan is ruinously honest about how shitty adolescence is. β˜€οΈ

Nintendo Magic

Osamu Inoue's Nintendo Magic: Winning the Video Game Wars is one of a very small handful of authoritative glimpses into the inner workings of Nintendo. β˜€οΈ

...as a writer... β¬‡οΈŽ

Southwestern Molybdenum Supply

Short experiments in weird prose, along with an experiment in weird web “design”. πŸ’–

Story-Kill

A short fantasy story about paleolithic people in a fantastical ecosystem. It was published in Mirror Dance Fantasy. 🌘

Never Touch the Stuff

A short science fiction story (not freely available on the web, unfortunately) about mind-controlling advertising and breakups, published in Andromeda Spaceways Magazine. 🌘

We Had To Cross

An anachronistic blog wherein reside sporadic exercises in reflective personal essaying. πŸ’–

...as a... musician...? β¬‡οΈŽ

All The Music I've Ever Done

This is a big zip archive of all the music I'd ever made through 2014 or so. It comes with liner notes where I ruthlessly rate all my shit from 1-5 stars, and it holds up pretty well as a document of my "creative" "process." 🌘

The Classroom EP

This EP is the result of a six-month course Electronic Music Composition I took at the Dubspot school in NYC. πŸ’–

Indigo Heir

This song is included in All The Music I've Ever Done, but by virtue of appearing on the coloUrs and mayhem Homestuck soundtrack it's by a huge factor the most listened-to piece of music I've ever made. 🌘

A recent thing

This is a work-in-progress snapshot of something I'm working on right now. Sorta nice, right? A little?

...as a, ha-ha, “programmer”... β¬‡οΈŽ

OUR AUDIENCE INCLUDES

A web page that generates and displays absurd demographic segments and occasional bits of eerie truth. Visitors can click on the ones they identify with, and see a list of all the VALUABLE SEGMENTS other users have identified with. πŸ’–

getljxml & lj2dayone

These are two ruby scripts that, respectively, download the contents of a user's LiveJournal (yes yes I know) and import them into Day One, a popular Mac/iOS journaling tool. I think a couple of people have used it, which makes me awfully happy. Figuring out how to put them on GitHub was nearly as hard as writing them in the first place. πŸ’–

Sockdolager Submission Tracker

This is a small node.js app that queries the Airtable database backing The Sockdolager's submission and editorial database, allowing authors to check on the status of their submissions. It was written in and is hosted on Glitch, which means it can be remixed and adapted by other usersβ€”which has happened once, to my great pleasure. πŸ’–