Most of my novels are historical fiction or they take place in familiar areas. I spend a lot of time researching the time and locations of my stories for complete accuracy. This activity may well be the most rewarding part of writing. I am retired and this activity helps me remain useful and purposeful.

I like mystery, action, suspense, biography, and western books. On occasion I will read Danielle Steele or similar authors. I read about 2 novels per week. I review the description of the book and choose it often from the description. When I find an author I like I look them up and get a list of all their works and will work my way through the collected literature. I do not like sci-fi, or horror stories.

The first story I ever wrote was a college English class. I wrote the story about a child with various stages of Muscular Dystrophy. I had been working with that organization on a volunteer basis and had learned the heart wrenching stages of the disease. It was an effective story because when a classmate finished reading it out loud there was not a dry eye in the class.
I spent most of my working life as an Insurance salesman and seminar speaker. I learned that people enjoyed my stories and speaking. My first Novel was Leatherman thay was published in 2012 .

I outline the book. I tend to write about a series of events in a characters life. I research the locales and time period. I research whether or not certain machines, utensils etc. existed at the time of my story.
I start writing the first chapter. My writing style is in the form of being the reader. Seldom does my book follow the outline because as I write a new challenge or situation presents itself and I follow that path.
I enjoy writing the book because I enjoy seeing where it is going.

The first I remember was reading The Red Badge of Courage. I was about 8. (My parents encouraged reading. They taught me to read before I entered Kindergarten). They booked sparked a lifelong interest in the Civil war. This lead to a deep interest in the mishandling of the aftermath of the war by the North.

I try to have a cover that reflects either the person or the location of the story. I search stock of free photos and find one that suits. I superimpose the title and author name. Then I send it to a graphic artist to finish so it will be accepted by Smashword or other publishers.

Trilogy of the Rings - challenges your imagination and causes you to visualize
Bible - No matte4r how many times you read it you find new stories or interpretations according to the maturity level you have reached.
Psychocybernetics by Dr. Maxwell Malz. - The greatest self help book ever written. Patterned my career after the things I learned.
Twenty Thousand Leagues Below the Sea. - pure imaginative enjoyment
All of the Sherlock Holmes stories (Novels and Short stories) - what a genius to create all of those amazing observations which are very possible.

Detective and Action novels. Vince Flynn (god rest his soul) is one of my favorites. I also have read all of John McDo0nalds, Travis Magee books. I also enjoy Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books (they are hilarious)

I have a Nook. I also read books on my PC

To be honest none have been effective. I write for the fun of it and am not really pushing to sell my books. I release an announcement to my friends on Facebook and Linkedin.
I participated in couple of book signings. They were very enjoyable from the standpoint of meeting other authors and people. Some books were sold.
I made the mistake the first book of publishing through Xlibris. They were very good at extracting money for no action. I learned quickly and have discouraged more contact.

cluttered. I know where everything is.
Once a month my lady complains so I get a pile of manilla folders and organize everything. That lasts for at best two days.
I am writing on at least two books at a time. That is one way for me to avoid writers block. If I get to an impass on one book, I switch to another. I also will have several projects going on like organizing my music collection on excel, looking up new recipes, collecting and organizing jokes from the internet. I always have something going on at my desk. I do not watch daytime television other than late afternoon airing of the Peoples Court. Judge Millan is hot.

I grew up in St Louis. I lived near Forest Park and was in that park everyday of the summer. With Shaw's garden, the Zoo, the Art Museum and various other sights. There was a Museum of Magic about two blocks from the park on the Kingshaighway side. Touring all of these fed my imagination and gave me a broad spectrum of interests

Novels started after I retired three years ago. I had written several insurance textbooks while working.

The inequit of the treatment of the South after the Civil war and the populating of the frontier. I hope that I captured the spirit of those brave people that moved toward the unknown and faced hardship on a daily basis to build our country.

Always wanted to write.

Do not know yet. It will be an inexpensive way to get my books to outlets where people can find them.

I have had the pleasure of several people taking time to post on Facebook, Linkedin or thru email, to express the pleasure they had reading my work. That is the greatest joy.

Both of them mean everything. I do not really know if I have fans. If a person has a few hours of enjoyment reading my work then that means a lot to me.

I am writing the third book in the Leatherman series. This is a post civil war western series. The First book was Leatherman (my first novel). It is available at B&N, Amazon and several other ebook publishers. The second is Arkansas Trail which will be uploaded to Smashwords for distribution The tenative title for the third book is Ozark Order.