I love exploring. Writing is about looking at things from a new perspective, or putting yourself in someone else's shoes. I love to walk through new worlds and find out what stories the people there want to tell.

I'm working on a more conventional fantasy tale then Dave Woke Up. I have been examining contrasting philosophies and I'm trying to start with something simple like magic and technology. The world is coming along and I think I have a story to tell. Temporary title is The Forest and the Trees.

I'm deep into Brandon Sanderson's work. I've really enjoyed his Way of Kings series. Almost anything Stephen King has written I've found enjoyable, and his work ethic is an inspiration. His book "On Writing" is one of the things that let me think that I could try writing fiction for myself. I love Orson Scott Card in spite of his more recent sins. Treason and Ender's Game are big influences on me. I love Michael Crichton for his love of technology and sense of pace.

That's a tough question. It's something I delved deep into in my first book, Dave Woke Up. For me, it's been the need to create. Making something is an action that gives me real joy.

I'm a Fire Safety Engineer by trade, but it's not something I really enjoy. Sure setting things on fire is fun the first thousand times, but try writing a report about it a thousand time after and it can reap the joy from it. When I'm not working or writing I'm a fiend for movies and I try to always have at least one book ready to read.

Goodreads mostly. I participate in the Sword and Laser book club and there are a lot of aspiring authors there looking to get noticed. I like to notice them.

It was a sequel to "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?". My dad bought our first computer with a word processor (an x86 computer with a monochorome monitor) and it inspired me to try and write something. Not sure how I decided to go with a sequel to that movie. It was awful of course but I finished it. It was a long while before I finished anything else.

I'm a discovery writer, which means I'm still kind of working out my process. My first book, I had an ending in mind and wrote my way to it through a rather circuitous route. My current work has an actual outline and I'm making notes on characters so I'm slowly getting more organized and I hope it helps me get better.

It was probably one of the Narnia books. My favorite is The Silver Chair so I'd like to believe it was that one.

Mostly fantasy and science fiction. I read the occasional real fiction but I love the fantastic. I'll never understand people who tell a love story when they could be telling a love story IN SPACE!

iPad. More because I've never tried anything else.

Glass and steel. Covered with gadgets and random doodads from GenCon and other conventions I've bee to.