Greg Stone is a classic slacker, although he prefers the term "deferred novelist". He's a very nice guy, always ready with a smile and a joke.  He loves his collection of humorous t-shirts, which he thinks is actually a fashion statement. He's a little overweight, though he's still got his farm-boy good looks, with ruffled reddish hair and sky blue eyes, although the latter are hidden behind glasses (he's been meaning to get contacts, honest!).

 A very intelligent, educated person, Greg is fun to talk to and enjoyable to listen to, though conversations about his two dead-end jobs are a bit of a sore point (just going to prove that intelligence doesn't guarentee success).  He is a bit of a geek, loving comics, sci-fi, and medieval role playing.  He's very shy around women, and is constantly doomed to be a beautiful woman's "nice guy friend".

History:
Greg Stone grew up in a small mill town in central Massachusetts, the son of a millworker and growing up on a small cattle farm.   His family was fairly old fashioned and conservative, and he grew up a quiet and well behaved young man.

 He tried to be the athlete that his father wanted him to be but, despite muscles honed doing farm work, never quite achieved more than mediocrity.  His two younger brothers, both more athletic and more like their father, soon took most of the attention.  This was fine with Greg, however, as he felt more a sense of relief at the lack of pressure than any neglect.
 Consequently a bit more of a mama's boy, the studious bookworm also found a love of fantasy fiction and comic books, and discovered roleplaying games with a small group of fellow nerds at the high school, though wasn't able to get together with them often due to sports and farm work.

 In college, going to Boston University, Greg fell in love with the big city, and did reasonably well.  He allowed himself to get distracted by more RPGs with the local gaming group, feeling like he was making up for lost time from his high school days, but still graduated with reasonable grades.

 Greg had never really thought about the future, so was totally unprepared for what to do after college.  He stayed in Boston, working a series of low wage jobs while staying in a dive apartment on the edge of town.  He still managed to get together with a few local graduates, and even some current college kids, for RPGs, so he was happy.   He went on a few dates during this time, but after his college girlfriend had moved out of state upon graduation he mostly hung out with friends.

 Then his favorite gaming and comic store, Vecna's Gazebo, was hiring, and Greg applied.  Both because of his love of the place, and because of an unrequited crush on Rachel, the manager of the place.   Though 30 years old, Rachel looked like a spunky and snarky college student, and despite her being a lesbian Greg couldn't help being a little obsessed with her.  Oddly, this made him the model employee, and, either knowingly or unknowingly, Rachel knew she could always depend on him, and within a year he was assistant manager, being groomed for manager while the company talked about making a second location across town.

 During this time, Greg took two weeks of vacation a year.  One at Christmas to visit his family in Greensville, Ma, and a week to go to Comic Con.  Vecna's Gazebo was much too small to really have an official presence at the convention, so besides keeping some receipts to write off as "business expenses" as he did some exploring and research for the store's sake, Greg was mostly there for pleasure.  It was his favorite time of the year.

 During this time, he met other gamers, and had a regular get together with them.
 He shared a lot about himself, though not everything.   He never mentioned his crush on Rachel, though the more perceptive of them probably figured it out.
 He enjoyed the many games they played, and within a  year or so the other players noticed that Greg seemed to prefer playing female characters.   Not melodramatic Xena or Red Sonja clones, nor the sex crazed vixens that many newbie gamer men played, but realistic and well rounded characters who were unmistakably female.

 He also mentioned his latest novel attempt during snack breaks, when people asked him how things were going.   Greg, while happy with his life at Vecna's Gazebo, wanted something more, and was convinced that he could be a writer.  His writing was pretty good, though only a little better than the average role player.   He'd write stories about a cross time detective, or a gamer who was also a cop, or a man who found a magic book in modern times, and of course a few stories that sounds like the transcript of a D&D game.   None impressed any publishers.   Still he toiled, writing almost for the sake of writing.   His female characters were particularly convincing with tremendous depth, but none of the stories had the spark that made for an amazing story.

 Every year Greg would save up his money for the convention, though he still had to be somewhat frugal, finding someone to share his hotel room and eating on the cheap.
 To everyone's surprise, however, the previous year Greg arrived with a private room, buying lots of gear and merchandise, and even paid for everyone's dinner a few times.  Though reluctant to talk about it at first, his friends would eventually pry the truth out of him:  He'd gotten a book published.

 The reason for his reluctance soon became obvious.   The ex-farm boy, son of a mill worker, had written a story with a female protagonist.  And not just a warrior or an adventurer, but a very prim and proper princess, who solved her problems with diplomacy and empathy more than action sequences.   Though trained to fight, Princess Tanique was more willing to befriend her enemies and talk about their differences than she was to draw a sword or a bow.

 This kind of book wouldn't be that big a deal, even for a somewhat old fashioned young man like Greg, but his publisher insisted that "Greg Stone", a man nearly 30 years old wouldn't sell any books to anyone, especially women, that were supposed to be about a pretty princess.  So, at the insistence of the publishers, Greg used a pseudonym of Ashley Andrews.
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 Just looking for the chance to publish something, Greg was amazed when the book soared to the top of the Young Adult book charts, selling hundreds of thousands of copies.   Requests were made for a sequel, and more after that.   He was already half way done with his second book when the group got the story out of him about "The Princess Tanique Adventures, by Ashley Andrews".

 Unwilling or unable to tell his parents of his success, for fear they'd be more disappointed than proud at such an unconventional career, Greg had kept most of what happened a secret, from nearly everyone he knew.   It was clear that the secret was gnawing at him a little, but he was reluctant to spoil it, for fear of destroying the only real success he'd had.