Currently working on a story about a rogue sniper terrorizing the same city that was the setting for Undercover and The Killer Strikes. It is set in the immortal universe pretty much concurrently with The Immortal Progression and has both familiar faces and a completely new protagonist.

I like a lot of authors, Stephen King, Clive Cussler and Rex Stout being early influences. Oddly I tend to go more for history now so I read a lot more non-fiction than I did when I was younger, this may be partly because I don't like the extra influences when I'm writing. If I'm going to subconsciously plagiarize I'd rather it be historical fact than someone else's imagination.

Oh man, I remember a lot of garbage when I was a kid. Wasn't very good at keeping my ideas apart from the pop culture I was absorbing so it was a horrible story that stole bits from a pile of 80's movies. I guess the best description for it (other than crap) would be if the Griswold kids took a psychotic vacation through the america that had been invaded by the Russians and Cubans of Red Dawn. Yes, it was as awful as it sounds. The Healy Murders was probably the first coherent story that I started on a whim when I was in college.

I start with an idea and then start talking through it. I'll write a chapter and then refine it as I go through. The early books were often written after talking through the plot points with my friend Chris. As Times have changed and I can't write as much as I used to I tend to slowly talk through the plot points when I'm bored, often in the car on the road to and from my day job. When I think I know where I'm going to go with it I'll write it and then continue and revise. If I write myself into a corner I'll either go back and retcon it or drop sections entirely.

Some books I have better ideas on where they go than others. Undercover was always a structured setup, I knew exactly where it was going to end, but the interesting part was meandering my way to that point and putting it all together.

Other books I've started and they would stick around for a while and go on my abandoned file until I figured out what to revise to make them workable. Durell's Insurection, Anoki's Revenge and Not With a Whisper fell into that category. All three of those went through massive plot revision about half or two thirds of the way through when I finally figured out how to finish them.

No matter the status I stick to Word and go chapter by chapter, using the document map for reference as I go back and reread or revise for continuity.

My iPhone. I take it everywhere and the best book is the one I have with me when I need it. I rarely read on anything else nowadays.

Small, crowded, with more junk than anything else. I replaced my aging laptop with a mac mini so I could get away from fighting with windows all the time, but still keep it on the small table I used for the old laptop. It is a handy and movable setup when I need it.

I grew up in Southern Maine and a lot of events that happened up there influenced my first book for sure, several things that happened with Chris and Jerry were based of events I'd either witnessed or been a part of as a kid. Thankfully, this was mostly the more innocent stuff earlier in the book as I've never been or witnessed a serial killer at work, but it still had influence upon the story.

I'd tried on and off through school, but I didn't have a whole lot of motivation. Finally, I started working on the first version of The Healy Murders when I was in college. It went better than I'd hoped, with some good feedback from friends who read pieces as I went through it. It was a good first attempt, but the execution was seriously lacking in that one. It was originally written in first person from Chris Healy's view because that was the only way I could think to do it at the time. The story underneath was solid, but the presentation was lacking and I didn't stop the story when I should have. I learned a lot from it though and slogged through another book and a half before I figured out that the stories I wanted to tell worked better from third person. As a result one book (Undercover) got a rework about halfway through and the first two (The Healy Murders and The Accidental Immortal) were rewritten afterwards, both of them being far better off for it.

Kids, Work and Video Games. Those three things suck down a lot of my time nowadays.

I didn't want to go through the grind of finding an agent and dealing with that pile of rejection just to take that one in a million shot at becoming famously successful. I enjoy writing, but I'm not a self promoter. Putting them up on Smashwords just made sense. I don't make much from it, but I know it is out there and someone reads it every once in a while. That's enough for me at this time.

Wow... Ok, there are a few I've gone back to again and again. This is in no particular order, and probably would be answered differently the next time I'm asked:

-Christine by Stephen King
-Raise the Titanic by Clive Cussler
-Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy
-A Family Affair by Rex Stout
-The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer

Christine was probably one of the most pure pieces of writing for me to read. I felt for Arnie Cunningham and could relate to the story in a lot of ways. The way Stephen King handles words still makes me envious. There's also the fact it is fun to read.

Early Clive Cussler was great stuff, too bad they borked every movie made from his material. That entire series and the way that they had interlocking pieces was a huge influence on me, which is why there's common threads and characters through all but a few of my books.

Red Storm Rising gave me a lot of insight on how to handle widely disparate characters and it was a great story, long before Clancy became little more than a brand name on a video game series and knockoff book series. I think there's a good bit of techniques I picked up from this book in the Mullinix series, the last book especially.

Rex Stout was a master of characterization. Sometimes the mysteries themselves were less compelling than the characters themselves. Even the most minor characters were described impeccably. Even though I've all but memorized most of his books I'll still go back and reread them just to spend time with his characters. If any of my characters are half as good as any of his minor characters I'll consider them a success.

I know this is an odd one to have as a favorite, but I still find the story of how the Third Reich rose to be a fascinating case study of evil mixed with the most damned luck I've ever seen. There are few better pictures of how to build a monster than to study the Nazis. Not to mention, they make great villains because everyone hates them. Even if you aren't setting in World War II directly, just partially basing a civilization off the Nazis is a good way to create an antagonist. Bolantine's empire in the last two Mullinix books takes more than a little from the Nazi playbook, which was why it was so satisfying when it came tumbling down.