I started writing stories and poetry in high school. I began many book length stories but didn't finish any. In my thirties, after settling down in my profession and starting a family, I decided to go back and take one of these stories to the end. This first book took me almost ten years to complete.

When I have an idea for a story, I jot it down. I may go back and look at it for months before I get a feel for what the whole story is going to be. Eventually I wrap my head around what the conflict and resolution of the plot will be. Then I sit down and write a very loose outline. This is when I usually start thinking about the characters-- who they are and what motivates them. Then I start writing. I usually write from beginning to end, but have on occasion, written chapters out of order. When the draft is done, I usually do three or four revision passes through it before the story is where I want it.

I write the stories that I want to read, and I do go back and read them from time to time. There is just something so special though, when a reader tells you that your writing connected with them. My single most exciting moment so far was when my books were profiled by Patrick L. McGuire in The New York Journal of Science Fiction. When he compared my writing to James White, it literally brought tears to my eyes remembering all those hours reading White when I was growing up.

As a kid, I wrote a comic strip called "In the Cosmos" set seven years in the future which I think at the time (1972) was 1979. My first real prose story was "New Tales of Tarzan." I never finished more than two chapters, and I had Tarzan and Jane running around in a contemporary Africa, but I think those two chapters fit stylistically very well with Burroughs' many Tarzan books.

I love hearing that someone has read and enjoyed one of my books. It really is the ultimate validation for a writer. I enjoy hearing from readers in other parts of the world. I suppose there are some who are no longer amazed at how technology has connected us all, but I'm not one of them. Wherever readers are, I want to hear from them.

Shashwords has been vital to my success. I started here very early. My first book published through Smashwords was His Robot Girlfriend in 2009. It was Smashwords book number 1864. Since then more than 75% of my book sales have come through the Smashwords distribution network. Equally important has been the ability to publish free ebooks and get them out to the same booksellers. His Robot Girlfriend is distributed as a free ebook and has brought me a great deal of positive recognition and many connections with readers.

I have a large corner-unit computer desk with a shiny and very sexy new iMac. All around it is clutter. To the right I have my keys, wallet, and glasses, extra cables, my mail, and my iPad. To the left is a cup full of pens and pencils, a stack of comic books my son wants me to read, and stacks of CDs. Above on a shelf are a row of computer games, small figures of Shakespeare, Wonder Woman, and the dog from the original Battlestar Galactic, a complete set of Dark Knight Returns action figures, and a globe. Between my keyboard and my screen is my phone, a calculator, and my writing notebook. The desk is always pretty messy, but inside the computer there is no clutter and everything is stored in just the right folder.

After I finished my first novel, Princess of Amathar, I spent years sending it out to agents and publishers. I know now that it would never have found a publisher. It's the type of science-fiction story I liked to read a boy, but it's not the type being published today. I set it aside and started working on something completely different-- what would eventually become Senta and the Steel Dragon. While I was doing that, a friend suggested self-publishing my first book just for myself and family. I did, first as a paper book and then an ebook. Lo and behold, people bought my book and told me they liked it. I decided then that going directly to readers was far more fulfilling than trying to write for the gatekeepers of the publishing industry that might never like the types of stories that I wanted to write.

My latest book is The Price of Magic. It is the seventh volume of Senta and the Steel Dragon (or eighth if you count book 0). This series is my personal favorite of all the books I've written. They take place in a fantasy world that is very much like our own Victorian age, so they have a steampunk quality to them, but I think you'll find them different from anything you've read. The stories follow a girl as she grows up, starting out as a sorceress's apprentice and finally becoming a sorceress herself. In the Price of Magic, she is a grown woman and a very powerful magic user. There is a great emphasis on change in the series and characters come and go, become less and more important, and carry on their lives.

At any one time, I usually have six or eight stories that I have partially written. I'm trying to discipline myself to stay focused on one at a time, but so far I haven't had any luck with that. I also have a huge pile of story ideas that I hope to get to eventually. You can check out what's in the pipeline at WesleyAllison.com.

As a kid, I had read many children's books given by my aunt who was a teacher, and I mostly enjoyed reading them. Then one summer when I was nine, I was staying with my grandparents. I was looking through the bedroom of my uncle who had just died in service in Viet Nam when I found a box full of Tom Swift books. I read them and I suddenly had to read more. I searched bookstores until I found the whole series. While there, I discovered Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Bradbury, Heinlein and others. Tom Swift really turned me into a reader, and I never stopped being one. Thinking about these events a few years ago led me to try and recreate that feeling I had reading those first books. That's when I created my own young inventor/adventurer Astrid Maxxim.

As a kid, I loved the pulp writers-- Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard. I enjoy J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen King, and J.K. Rowling, and science-fiction author James White. I think my favorite author of all time is Richard Adams, author of Watership Down. I think his book Shardik may be one of the best novels ever written.

My first ereader was a Sony and I really liked it. I read a lot on it. Then I tried out one of the first iPads and just had to have one-- it was like holding magic. I bought an iPad and to help pay for it, sold my Sony. Later I found that the iPad is a little too heavy for reading one-handed in bed, so I bought a nook Simple Reader. It's very nice, but I end up doing 90% of my reading on my iPad (now a new model) because it's always nearby since I use it for so many other things.

I like to call teaching my day job. I've been teaching middle school for the past twenty-two years. It is both rewarding and trying in ways that you can never understand if you are not a teacher. Being a teacher makes writing incredibly easy for three months a year and incredibly hard for nine months a year. When not writing or teaching, I spend time with my family, usually playing games, watching movies, or just hanging out.