Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
I moved to the Boston area in 1979 when I was 14 years-old. It was a rough transition for a kid raised in the Midwest, and I ended up going through four new schools in three years. I suppose that experience helped awaken my imagination and writing became an outlet. It wasn't until my senior year in high school that I entered a writing contest and won second place.
What motivated you to become an indie author?
A few years ago, when I first considered writing a novel, I attended a lecture by an author agent who talked about the traditional publishing business. One of the things he said about it was that it's one of the slowest moving and quirky industries out there. When I finally finished my novel, self-publishing had entered a whole new era. I seemed a faster and easier way to get published.
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