Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff. It featured a life-sized dinosaur statue that comes to life to spend the day playing with a little boy. I wanted to be that boy.

I flesh out each main character, understanding them inside and out. I create an environment and situation to put them in. Now, here's the tricky part: I then follow the characters around and write down what they do. In a weird way, my characters write the story, not me.

Also, I drink tons of coffee for focus and clarity.

Indeed. It was roughly four hundred pages of story script intended to become a comic book or graphic novel. It would instead eventually become my first novel. Four Winds - One Storm: The Bone Brick City.

My wife does my covers, so I must approach very carefully.

Lamb by Christopher Moore. I love the humor and message of friendship in this book. Also, Moore has a strong ability to make exotic places in the past seem familiar and believable. This book just has a great variety of cool things going on.

Paychecks and earnings statements.

I like my Nook. I have two.

Pitching directly to costumers at conventions. There are few joys like convincing a stranger to take a chance on your work.

Multi-part screwdriver. Pyramid of bottle caps. Various notes. A peacock feather. Litmus paper. A harmonica.

I wrote poetry as a teen and songs as a bachelor in my twenties. Now that I'm in my thirties, I write weird fiction.

Four Winds-One Storm is everything I've enjoyed in comic books and action/mystery films. It's all about the group dynamic, how the different characters relate to each other. I had these ideas for a new form of magic, new races, and a new kind of cosmology that, as far as I know, is quite original. In this world/reality, the truth is subjective and it is the philosophers who control the magic. It has elements of fantasy, science fiction, and horror; but it is mainly its own weird thing.

I'm an unconventional conventionist.

Every time I read the word "Smashwords", I think "Smash Swords", and then I wonder what "smash swords" are and how to wield them against giant monster spiders....I'm sorry. What was the question?