If I'm writing a script, I usually figure out most of the characters and the setting first. If the script is based on a story, I re-read the story. Then I outline. Most stories take place over several days, months or years but if I'm adapting it for the stage then I don't want my play to be that stretched out.
If I'm writing a novel during November's National Novel Writing Month, I type as fast and as furiously as possible. I don't have an outline, or characters in my head, except for maybe my first character. Then I make it up as I go along. It's been such a freeing process to create characters at the moment I need them or plot twists or even the surroundings. Granted, there's a lot of editing that has to be done afterwards, but I have to do that anyway.

I've been read to and reading since I was so young that there's no way I remember the first story. But I do remember lots of trips to the library - both school libraries and public libraries. I saw my kindergarten teacher when I was in my early 20's and she told me that when she would announce reading time, I would get a book and pour over it. I remember that my third grade teacher always read chapter books to the class after lunch. I remember loving Where the Wild Things Are, but I'm not sure if that's when I was a young child or when I was a little older reading it to my baby brother. I absolutely loved - and still do - fairy tales, fables, myths, folktales, and tall tales.

Ack! With great trepidation. I do have an illustrator friend who has made a cover for me. I've used iStock photos and changed them up a bit...or not changed them much because I get intimidated. There's also a covers service that I found on Facebook - I watch the covers they have coming through, ready to pounce on anything I think would work for upcoming books or novels I'll be publishing.

1. The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster - I love the puns and wisdom and words. Great story!
2. The Chronicles of Prydain - Great fantasy books of a young boy who learns about people and honor and self as he grows up an assistant pig keeper but wanting to be a hero. Lloyd Alexander won a Newbery Award for the last book in the series - The High King.
3. The Chronicles of Narnia, by C. S. Lewis - Poignant fantasy. It's quite the allegorical adventure. "Further up and further in!"
4. The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, by Tolkien. Love them! There is no why; I just do.

And that's all I can name because there's just too many! But those four I named have had to be replaced over the years because I read them over and over. The books finally wear out and fall apart, even with the fix-it tape on them. Primarily, I love fantasy - Artemis Fowl, Searching for Dragons, Dragon's Milk, Bartimaeous Trilogy, Ranger's Apprentice Series, Harry Potter. I've also read the Hiding Place, and James Herriot's books multiple times. I better stop now or I'll have to list everything on my bookshelves and all the ebooks I have too.

Primarily, Young Adult fantasy.

Kindle, because Amazon has so many free classics.

The dining table - white and round. The shape is good for playing board games. (just a side note)

I grew up in Austin Texas, and I find myself writing plays with characters who speak in southern accents and I've also written a few Texas fables that include roadrunner cousins and slow armadillos.

Other than the occasional assignment in school and college, for the most part I started writing plays in 1993, picture books came along shortly after that and I finally wrote a novel in 2009. That novel and subsequent novels are still being edited. Of course, there was the time I wrote a Choose Your Own Adventure type book for my husband as a Christmas gift; that was in 1990. Alrighty then, I started in 1990. Unless I remember some other book or story I wrote prior to that.

I attended many writer conferences and after hearing so many conflicting views from editors and publishers about what makes a good story, query letter, or submission, I decided I might as well do it myself. I read up on it; I watched a member in my writer's critique group go indie; and I attended workshops on the subject. All in all, it just made sense, especially now with ebooks being popular and there's no cash out for an author. I had also already been renting my scripts through my theater company, so I knew it could be done.

After looking at several ebook publishers, I decided that Smashwords was the place for my scripts and theater books because of the different formats customers could download. If someone prefers printing out my book and putting it into a binder, great. If they just want the book on their e-reader, that works, too.
Smashwords made it easy for me to make the decision and go for it. They even have a style guide and a marketing book that helps me along the way.

I love theater and I love making a difference in a child's life. I've seen it over and over again through all the decades I've been involved in theater. Yet knowing that sometimes those theater classes, camps, workshops can get expensive, I figured there would be those DIYers who would love to get their hands on books that allow them to teach the children in their lives, whether it's theater skills or just having something available for their child who loves to perform.

I'm working on two how-to theater books - one is the home edition and one is the school edition; I've got numerous scripts to format and upload to Smashwords; I've got one Young Adult fantasy - White Fire - that I'm almost done editing; I have three children's scripts to complete before summer 2014; an Young Adult contemporary that is almost finished in its rough draft; and three YA fantasy that need first edits. And every November, I participate in National Novel Writing Month and write a novel - so that'll be rough draft and edits follow. Do I have enough time for this? No, but I'll make the time!

Andre Norton, C.S Lewis, Tolkien, Haddix, Patricia Wrede and many, many more!

The day itself and the opportunities that are in it. I always have projects going on, whether they're reading books, writing something, cross stitching a design, or cooking up a storm!

Board games, movies, performing, teaching theater, reading, cross stitching, sewing, cleaning...you know, life stuff.

Facebook, Pixel of Ink, Book Bub, Meandering through Smashwords.

No! I know there are writers who have been writing stories since they were three, more or less. I was too busy playing outside to think of becoming a writer. It never really crossed my mind. Even when I got into high school and college, I wasn't necessarily interested. I wasn't not interested but it wasn't something I was thinking about. Heck, I wasn't even going to major in theater because there was "no money in it" until I overheard someone say "children's theater" and I knew that was for me. Practicality be darned. Then I started writing my own scripts, then picture books, then novels and even non-fiction. So now I'm a writer.

Hm. I guess so. So far anyway. Maybe next year for National Novel Writing Month, I'll try a fiction novel for grown-up types, maybe. (There are a lot of words in those big people books; I'd have to really think...or lay it on thick :) )

Can I make a difference? That's what I want to be able to do for my fans. How can I help them? Did I word something in my theater books or scripts that they just don't understand? I would love to help them. Are they wondering about putting on a play with 8-year-olds? I would love to help them. Did I misspell something in my novel? I better know that, too!