Welcome to Part 14 of my 20 part series “Better Know a Speaker!” Today’s speaker: William Brinkman, the fighting tabloid journalist!

William Brinkman is the creator of The Bolingbrook Babbler, a fictional tabloid. First posted on the Internet in 1998, The Babbler has satirized local politics, the paranormal, and the skeptical movement. The Babbler has been featured in Bad Astronomy, The Friendly Atheist, and Skepchick.

William also contributed short stories to White Wolf’s Demon: The Fallen role-playing game books from 2002 to 2003.

Said William, “Because I was the only atheist on the writing team, I ended up writing most of the stories about the ‘bad guy’ demons.”

William is a graduate of the University of Iowa’s journalism program. When he lived in Iowa City, he worked at two start up publications. After moving to the Chicago area he joined The Camarilla, an international role-playing group, and served for a year on their national storyteller staff.

He first wrote Babbler articles for this web site from 1998 to 2001. After taking sometime off, he resumed posting Babbler articles in 2007.

“I like writing these Weekly World News type articles because it combines my journalism experience with my love of fiction writing. Plus by using humor, I think I can discuss serious issues in a way that is more accessible to the public. I don’t expect every reader to agree with what I write, but if they think about the subject of the story, then I’ll consider it a success.”

Though William’s journey towards skepticism began in college, he feels he became committed to skepticism after reading a post on the Art Bell Usenet group.

“Hale-Bopp was going the make its closest approach to Earth the next day, and this person said that he was going to hide in the basement with is gun. Here was a once in a lifetime event to see a naked eye comet, and he was hiding in a basement because he was afraid of the monsters following it. I thought we were beyond that.”

William’s presentation will be a live reading of some of the stories from The Babbler. He will also talk about his experiences producing The Babbler.

Check back here later for more speakers, assuming I get more bios!

–Speaker Conjurer Don

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