I grew up in southern New Jersey. My biggest influence was my high school English teacher, Mr. Cohen. Not only did he encourage me to write, but he also encouraged me to be the best that I could be in whatever I decided to do. God bless him.

I first started writing in grammar school. I was notorious for using my friends as characters in my stories. Needless to say, they loved reading those stories because they were in all of them!

The book I'm working on now is my interpretation of what transpired in Tombstone, Arizona on October 26, 1881. In other words, I'm trying to bring Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan Earp to life along with Doc Holliday, Billy and Ike Clanton, Frank and Tom McLaury, and a whole host of others. Of course I'm referring to the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

The rough and unforgiving world of traditional publishing inspired me to become an indie author.

Smashwords is a godsend to those of us who love to write, but don't enjoy the business end of it. Smashwords takes the hassle out of getting your work into the hands of readers but eliminating the middle man, so to speak. And I love the fact that Smashwords allows me to retain all the rights to my work. If I haven't already said this, then thanks for everything, Mark Coker. Your vision has inspired thousands of hungry writers.

Living the lives of others, if only for a short while. All of my characters are like old friends.

Everything. That's why I give it my all each and every time I write, because that's the least I can do for someone willing to hand over their hard-earned bucks just to read what I have to say.

It seems that I'm always working on a Western these days, because that's the genre I prefer. I love the wild west and everything about it.

I really don't have favorites because what I enjoy at the time depends on my mood. But I have undying respect and admiration for people like William Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, Owen Wister, and Toni Morrison. Most of what I read lately is nonfiction, research for the books I'm working on. The last book that I read was Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend, by Casey Tefertiller.

Besides my family, I would have to say writing. As writers know, you have to live and breathe what you're working on at the time, 'cause it ain't gonna write itself.

Well, since my kids are grown up now, I spend a lot of my time caring for my house and yard. I also cook; I'm always trying to find a healthier way to eat the things that I enjoy. I love to exercise and paint (oil on canvas).

By word of mouth, and by surfing the internet.

The first novel I wrote was called Huntington Halls, and I was in the ninth grade when I finished it.

First I come up with an idea, and then I think the story through before I write down a single word. I like making outlines; it's important that I know where the story is going because I don't enjoy books that seem random.

I only remember the first book that I read that I liked enough to remember, and that was Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. It was a class assignment, and I can remember that I was the only one in my class who did like it. I was also very moved by Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy.

I just take an important happening in my story and try to put it on the cover. I guess that I'm a firm believer in a picture being worth a thousand words.