My greatest joy comes from creating a new world, a new character, or a new adventure that someone else can enjoy or escape to.

I will continue to write no matter what, but knowing that there are fans who are anticipating reading my newest book adds fuel to my writing fire, so to speak!

I have a sequel to Mrinta Quest that is about 2/3 finished. I am also working on a series of four interrelated novelettes that take place around the same time as The Oten's Eye. On another burner, I have a quasi-memoir simmering!

My favorite authors include Jack Vance, JRR Tolkien, Ursula K. LeGuin, C. S. Lewis, and Raymond Feist. There are also single books by several other authors that I fondly remember and occasionally reread, such as Richard Matheson's I Am Legend.

I work full-time teaching, so I am inspired by the need for a paycheck! But, sometimes ideas come bubbling up in dreams or in my semi-conscious state-of-mind, and if I don't get them down on paper quickly, they fizzle away and are lost! I've had some great ideas pass into oblivion.

I spend a lot of time involved in planning classes and grading student papers and tests, as well as domestic chores, but I love to hike and bike and watch movies every chance I get!

I keep an eye on Smashwords, Amazon, Goodreads, and BookShout. I also watch out for books posted on Facebook by friends. I sometimes find the reviews posted about books mesmerizing, even the bad ones!

Yes, it was about a mischievous faun. Another one I remember was a rip-off of Treasure Island.

My writing process is all over the place! I sometimes plunge into free writing, where I'll write half a dozen scenes or chapters then brainstorm to fill in the gaps. I also like to create chapter titles and write scenes and chapters that basically describe or act out the ideas behind the titles. Recently, I have adopted and adapted some of the writer's help e-books available. One of these basically helped me to write a 30,000 word second draft.

I remember a second grade reading book that was basically a collection of popular fairy tales from around the world. Such stories enchanted me and made me want to write fantastic stories myself. I've never really wanted to write anything else!

At this point, I can't really afford a professional designer or artist, so I have collaborated with my son, who has a lot of natural artistic talent and a drawing tablet that he connects to his laptop. It has been challenging but so much fun!

Currently, my writing desk is a computer stand on wheels, where I set my laptop. It's a little high, so I write using a wireless keyboard across my knees. I sit in a chair in a corner of my wife's sewing room. While she works on quilting squares and such, I write. Oh, yeah. The dog's there, too, stretched out between the two of us.

I grew up on my father's cotton farm in Southeastern Arizona, less than thirty miles north of the border with Mexico. When I consider some of the endless chores there were to do, I know it was my imagination that saved me from sheer boredom. While my hands were busy doing things like chopping weeds or digging out the furrows between rows of cotton plants, my mind built characters and stories and roamed to other places, real or imagined.

My first attempts at a continuous narrative began when I was around ten. All through elementary school, junior high, high school and college, I filled notebooks up with many, many beginnings of stories, some of which I still have.