Fantasy and Science Fiction that focuses on characterization and world building. That's why I tend to write stories from third person limited since it gives me a chance to ride in a character's head, questionable view point and all, and build up the world from there.

I also love to read about myths and folklore from various areas around the world. This started in 4th grade when I read everything my library had to offer about Greek mythology. That led to looking at Norse mythology. I keep coming back to the Epic of Gilgamesh and finding some aspect of a story to tell. But this is why so much of my fiction blends various mythologies and folklore into a stew of story. I want to know what happens when Inanna and Cupid get together. I want to think about what happens when Wolf, Stag, Pig (some very minor characters from the Welsh Mabinogion) meet up with Circe.

I read fiction on kindle. It's large enough that I can fit a decent amount of text on the screen and doesn't lose power as quickly as my phone. Also, I'm in the habit of downloading fiction and copying over directly onto the Kindle itself. So, books from Smashwords, A03 fanfic, it's all good and easy to read there.

I am a child of the 70s and 80s. I grew up in Southern California in a white, suburban neighborhood as an only child with two working parents.

Therefore I entertained myself a lot as a child. That might have been reading or imagining kingdoms or adventures that I would write down on little books of folded paper. I suppose this both flexed my imaginative muscles at a young age, and means that I tend to think of these landscapes as having a bit more magic than I generally see them given. I was within bicycle distance of a flood control channel that was fairly dense with dirt and plant life on top of the cement. There were hidden spaces in the backyard. Different views from the top of the magnolia tree out front.

There was a bit more diversity when we moved to Northern California in the late 80s and then off to university (UCSC - err... go Banana Slugs), but really it was the experience of working abroad after graduation in London that opened up my perspective. It was then that I really understand that I had grown up in a particular culture with a specific cultural experience, because I was then interacting with people with completely different experiences. It was an eye opener. Travel and being open to both my own formative experience and the experiences of others has been important to my writing ever since.

When I learned to write. I've always been a storyteller. Always thinking about how to mix and match stories.

Though, as someone old enough to use a typewriter, it was the clickety-clack sound of my late night typing that was one reason my mother bought our Compaq luggable (40 pounds light) so I'd be quieter. Certainly it was easier to edit. I love to tinker with my phrasing aiming for metaphors and imagery that evokes the feeling of a location. The way the air drowses in the early morning, strands brushed by the soft whir of a fan, and blinked awake by the faint bright chirp of birds beyond the closed window. That sort of thing.

Mind you, when I was younger, I would write final drafts on paper that I'd soaked in coffee, and I'd write out with a calligraphy pen and then trace images in the margins that I would color using the tip of a stick in water color to give it really dense colors. When I look at old copies, they still have the faint smell of coffee and early imagination.

It's based on the fairytale of the twelve dancing princesses, which is a very old fairytale and is told in many nations. In the original, there's a strange series of events that are never really explained, and only one of the 12 princesses has a happily ever after fate. We never find out what happened to the other 11 women. I wanted to tell a story where we'd get a chapter from the point of view of each of the dancers where perspectives on events or information would change based on the view point character. Because there are 12, I used Hebrew & Babylonian months for their names, and elements of either the number or those months served as a prompt for their plot arcs.

Also, because this is such an old story, the fairytale has a number of visual elements that it has in common with the Epic of Gilgamesh. i.e., when Gilgamesh goes to the garden of Dawn. So, I set the story in Ur in the two river valley (the Tigris and the Euphrates) and made the father of the 12 princesses Gilgamesh-ish, though no one ever refers to him by name and some story elements are different. But that he is a great, but flawed, hero is something that the various characters deal with and process throughout the book.

I did the rounds on trying to get published. I'd get a story edited, and send to magazines. Queue montage of rejection letters. I'd get a book edited and send to agents. Queue montage of rejection emails.

I realize all the advice is just keep plugging, but my time is limited. I do have a busy job where I work as a technical writer, family obligations etc. So my time to work on fiction is all marginalia. I decided I could either spend all my time in the margins trying to get published or, given the era we live in, just publish it myself.

It does mean not many people read my work. I am, quite frankly, not good at self-promotion. But at least I'm writing.

There are two ways of answering this.

My favorite times writing have been it feels as if I am simply writing down something that already exists, and my fingers are merely the conduit. In those times, I wake up absurdly early with words shoving at mind. Not brain weasels of 3am, but running horses splashing in the shore. It's heady feeling and when it happens, I love it. That said, it takes a lot of writing to reach that point.

My other favorite is crafting. If I have an idea for a story, and my goal is to make it as jewel like as possible. Craft every word in the short story to serve both the narrative goal, define who the characters are, and what it feels like in those locations. Those are very satisfying stories to finish because they do gleam, but they are a lot of work.

I want to write several more of my children's short stories. All of my children's fiction is based on story tickets. Where children of friends have been given (and turned in) a story ticket with a set of characters and a setting, and I tell them a story based on that. Before the pandemic, I had a backlog of them to write up.

Since the pandemic, well, I offered to host virtual story time once a week for 4 kids, because I care about them and their parents. I know it's been a bright spot for them. It also means I have a two inch stack of story tickets and 200 pages of notes on what I told them. These are somewhat longer form stories. I'd like to go back through the older stories and get those written up and then look at turning some of the Tales While Sheltering in Place into books.

Lois McMaster Bujold. Neil Gaiman. Jacqueline Carey.
I'm sitting in the room set aside for our books and all the thousands of them on their shelves are currently sitting there going "Pick me!" at me, but those would be my off the top of the head picks.

I'm a morning person, so it's not hard. Also, that's my only free time for creative work. Either I get up and get going, or without flexing the creative muscle, ideas go idle on the vine and fall away n'ere to be seen again.

Like most working folks, most of my time is spent working. I write technical documentation. More specifically for the last few years I've focused on writing privacy and security policies and procedures for compliance with various frameworks. PCI governs how credit cards are protected. ISO 27001 is an information security framework with an extension, ISO 27701, for privacy. SOX covers financial compliance (aka don't cook the books) for public companies. Possibly not the answer whoever wrote the question was expecting.

In my free time, I read while pacing, so I can get some exercise. I have a tight group of friends. So small gathers, less of that for the last year, but zoom has helped during covid.

I love to travel and have experiences in the world. See new places that are very different from my life. Go home and see my life in a new way based on that experience.