Maybe the best way to answer this is the way the writer Brian Keene answers it, and he calls it "ass in seat" time. You've got to just put your ass in that seat and start writing. Something. Anything. It all starts there. Who knows? Maybe some magic will happen! But you're not going to write anything unless you put your ass in that seat.

I first began writing in earnest back in 2005, with my first novel, "Sumner Gardens," a semi-autobiographical look back at my childhood. Upon completing it, I said to myself, anyone can write ONE book, but if you want to be a WRITER then you need to write more than one. So, I immediately began writing "Hope Town," my first attempt at a thriller. Funny, some readers have said that "Hope Town" almost feels like a sequel to "Sumner Gardens," and in a way, they're right.

Funny, I've been thinking about that a lot lately. Even looked it up and found an ancient copy of it on ebay. The first book I ever remember reading was called "Olaf Learns to Read." It was about this kid (or maybe it was a creature of some sort) who was just learning to read, and I remember he came across a fire alarm, and the only word he could make out was "Pull." And so, he pulled. Aside from it being indelibly inked to my brain, it hasn't had that much of an effect on me. I haven't pulled any inadvertent fire alarms, anyway. But I do remember it.

I'd say the little surprises that happen along the way. For example, early on in a book or a short you try to add tiny details for flavor, or color, or because you find it amusing, or because you're trying to pump up the word count. Many, if not most, of those details will get excised during later edits. But if you've sprinkled enough throughout, you often find later on in the writing that something you thought was just a throwaway line a hundred or so pages previous has miraculously become intrinsic to the plot. Those are the best moments.

This is no doubt the weakest part of my marketing. I create my own covers, mostly using cover creator software from one publisher or another. My first few were just abysmal, but I think I'm getting better. The tools are certainly getting better. Amazon now has an excellent cover creator. But anyway, I try to think of an image from the story that best exemplifies the gist of it, and then it's a search for a public domain image that fits the bill. I've been very happy with my last few.

Wow. Favorite book is "Tender is the Night" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, hands down, and it's because of the writing. That it takes place in an interesting place and time with indelible characters is only secondary. Next might be "All the Pretty Horses" by Cormac McCarthy, again, because of the writing. Those are the only two books that when I turned the last page, I went back to the first page and read them again. I'll round it out with "Boy's Life" by Robert R. McCammon, "Tunnel in the Sky" by Robert Heinlein, and "Empire of the Sun" by J.G. Ballard, because I read each of those books at the exact time in my life I was supposed to.

I'll read most anything, but I think you'll most often see me reading humorous fiction, be it Florida Fiction a la Tim Dorsey or Carl Hiaasen, madcap stuff from Christopher Moore, or more political stuff from Christopher Buckley, I can't get enough of it. When not reading that, it's horror from King, Simmons, or McCammon, the latest from Nelson DeMille, or whatever someone's left behind in the laundry room.

My latest is the fairy horror mystery romance THE MOUND (Exigua Publishing, October 2014), and the idea actually came from multiple sources. For example, I've long been intrigued by the mysterious and ancient stone ruins found throughout New England. But those ideas synthesized with others rattling around inside my head, not least of which was the 2007 unveiling of the Tulsa, Oklahoma "time capsule." To say more might be to give too much away, but once you read the book, I suspect you'll understand!

Funny, I'm not sure yet. Part of me wants to say that's up to the reader. If THE MOUND takes off, I'd love to revisit those characters and see what they're up to. I'm a good distance into the next volume of the APPLEWOOD vampire saga. And of course, I need to check in on my bumbling P.I. Dick Londergan every now and again. He gets in trouble if I don't! So I guess I'll just say . . . you tell me.