The latest book that I have published on Smashwords is 'Vanguard of Man'. It is a story about an Earth which has suffered a few of the more probable world-wide disasters (Financial collapse, Totalitarian governments, volcanic eruptions causing the return of the ice age) with the loss of most of the supple lines needed to survive.
In the story, the last scientific community designs and develops the tech for generational colony spacecraft to transport the survivors to other star systems. The Vanguard are modified human crew for those ships. Strong, super-intelligent and hard to kill, they are perfect for the job, but are they still human?
This Earth is one of many possible Earths that I will address in related books, each one existing in one of the many universes predicted by the Many Worlds Theory.

I had considered writing for many years. In fact, I had written various short stories and poetry over the years, but had never published, due to the many obstacles that one faces in the traditional publication process.
A couple of years ago, I discovered that the Indie publication process presented by such institutions as Smashwords and Amazon made the process realistic now, and proceeded to publish my little heart out.
As to what motivated me to become an indie author, I think that I must give the common answer. I write because I must. There are truths that each of us possess, and which we discover to our shock other people do not know. Like most writers, I want to give a gift of unique knowledge to my readers. Indie publication makes that possible.

I don't know if I can call my current results success, but Smashwords has added several people to my potential readership which would not see my writing without this channel. Because they have a stringent 'meat-grinder' formatting requirement, they force the author to be involved in the formatting process beyond what Microsoft Word would require. More involvement means more attention to detail. More attention to detail means a better story and better appearance to the book.

That question has two answers. The general answer is that I enjoy making the connection with my reader, and imparting a story or information that he/she needs. The private answer is that after years of not publishing what I needed to write, and hence never completing book length projects in the writing department, I have now 'broken through' the procrastination barrier in this respect. It feels good to finish up a book, format it and get it up for the readers to read.

I don't really think of them as fans. They are the readers, and they are looking for something when they choose a book. I am there to serve them what they need. If they like it, and come back for more, I feel like I am doing what I need to.

The next book will be an non-fiction book showing the independence aspect of Libertarianism, and detailing the likely collapses of our world-views that we will experience in the next few years. I will be tying that in with the tools needed by the successful survivalists in the possible scenarios. I will also try to cover the 'After the Collapse' years, and what the survivor will need to know to survive them. I am just starting to outline the book now.

That is simple. All science fiction authors. Zelazny, Niven, Baxter, and maybe Lumley for 'Hard Horror' stories.

I am old enough to have habits to cover that problem. My feet will hit the floor when I have a stray idea that should be in a book, so I guess that would be the best answer.

I like to read, I like to watch movies or television, or explore some stray subject that attracts my attention. If none of these activities appeals, I have a never-ending To Do List, and a set of goals that could keep me occupied for the next thousand years.

I usually put in a keyword in one of the websites, or will sometimes use the name of the author of something else I have enjoyed as the keyword. In the search for the author or subject, one usually finds many related subjects and authors to explore.

Yes I do. I was in the second grade, and the silly teacher wanted us to compose a simple story. I had just finished reading 'Robin Hood', 'Ivanhoe', 'Tom Sawyer' and a couple of small science fiction stories. I wrote a science fiction story which was about 15 pages long, was about a family of Martians, and involved cultural, sexual and activity issues that made the teacher concerned, and was way too much story for that venue. I was seven, and didn't know about the 'Do not volunteer' rule of life.