Welcome!
Hi, I'm Chris. Welcome to my one-page website. You're probably here for one of two reasons: either you want to learn more about my novels, in which case you should head for my writing website, or you want to learn more about my 27-year career as a web developer, in which case you should head for my Professional Website.
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Still Here?
Oh, cool. Well then let me tell you a little about myself. First off, my family pronounces our last name “Beekler” which is extremely not correct according to my German friends, but oh well! In addition to the writing and the web development, I also create music, am a student of the history and art of crafting cocktails, and am learning to draw. I used to work in the video game industry, and I also enjoy following the NBA, particularly the Boston Celtics.
I've lived a semi-nomadic life, with stops as an adult in Syracuse, Buffalo, Southern California, Philadelphia, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Indianapolis, Paris (France), and Providence. Currently I live in Saint-Cloud, France, with my brilliant wife Charlotte and our cat Baron Salvatore H. Lynx II.
Music
I'm a solid if unspectacular musician and singer. I play an Epiphone Elitist Les Paul Standard Plus electric guitar, a Taylor 214ce acoustic guitar, and a G&L Tribute L-2000 electric bass (the latter quite poorly!). I'm not bad on the drums, either, although it's been years since I had a kit, so I mostly stick with midi. I record on an M1 MacBook Pro using a Focusrite Scarlett Solo for mic and guitar inputs and a Nektar LX25+ midi controller. Currently I haven't released anything but I'm hoping to change that very soon! I've got a handful of songs that are ready for final mastering and a few more in the works.
Cocktails
For several years, I wrote cocktail and spirits articles for Primer, an online men's magazine. I'm especially proud of my series called “It’s Friday, Have a Drink” which featured a new cocktail (including my own custom photography) every Friday for more than two years and focused heavily on the history of each drink. From July 2013 to May 2015, I also ran a nightly cocktail blog, DrinkShouts, and way back in 2010 I won the amateur leg of Tanqueray's “Best T&T” contest. I no longer pursue this hobby as actively as I once did, but I still enjoy making cocktails at home and experimenting with new recipes.
Illustration
I was and remain a big fan of many comics illustrators, including X-Men stalwarts such as Marc Silvestri, Jim Lee, and Chris Bachalo, along with up-and-comers like Marcus To, Pepe Larraz, and Sana Takeda (among dozens of others). When I was sixteen, I thought I was going to draw comic books for a living. The problem? I didn't have the discipline. Eventually, in my early twenties, I stopped drawing altogether and for a couple of decades, that was it, save for the occasional doodle in the margin of a notebook.
In 2020, I picked up an iPad to do some testing for work. On a whim, I bought an Apple Pencil and started playing around with it. I soon found that I had a level of patience in my forties that I just hadn't had in my teens and twenties. I was enjoying the journey instead of just being impatient to get to the destination. After a few months, I set myself a goal: get good in ten years. Since then, I've improved steadily, albeit not as quickly as I could if I had fewer other hobbies! I'm still a long way from illustrating at a professional level, but I'm confident that I'll get there before the ten years are up. If you'd like to follow my progress, I post a lot of art on my Instagram.
Video Games
The first game I can remember playing is Haunted House on the Atari 2600, and I've been a fan ever since. In the early days of 3D gaming, I became involved in Quake modding and, eventually, making textures for games like Half-Life. This led to five years at GameSpy as both a writer and a web developer, along with a contract gig at Epic Games where I produced textures and skins for Unreal Tournament 2003 and Unreal Tournament 2004, and did some web work for the project that eventually became Gears of War.
I was also an early employee at Crispy Gamer, a website focused on high quality gaming journalism, where I built and launched the initial and redesigned versions of the site. Unfortunately, it was murdered by venture capitalists only a couple of years after it launched. These days, I just play games for fun, although I do still follow the industry closely. I mostly play games on PC (I currently have a 3080 setup), though I also own a PS4. I prefer story-focused single-player games … mostly RPGs, open world games, indie games, and the occasional FPS.
Sports
I spent my childhood in Massachusetts, so that's where my sports loyalties were formed (sorry!), though I also have a soft spot for Syracuse basketball. After watching the Bird-era Celtics and the 80s Red Sox, I fell away from sports for a while. In 2003, living in Southern California, I got back into basketball due to the one-two punch of Syracuse winning the NCAA tournament and becoming utterly sick of hearing about Kobe Bryant and the Lakers. In 2004 I watched the Red Sox win their first World Series in my lifetime, and I was a fan of the Patriots through the first half of their dominant run before becoming too disgusted with the NFL in 2014 to continue supporting it. I don't miss it.
I remain an active Celtics fan and a fan of NBA basketball in general — it's definitely my favorite sport by a wide margin. I don't wish ill on any teams (except the Lakers and the Yankees 😄) and often watch games that don't involve the Celtics if they have great players and play beautiful basketball.
Contact Me
Want to get in touch? I'm always happy to hear from people. You can hit me up at . I read everything that comes in and try to respond to anything that needs response!