All sorts of stuff, but I have a weakness for spy thrillers and mysteries. Lately I've been reading a lot of poetry, and writing some as well. And of course, my guilty pleasure is erotica.

Many - Graham Greene, John Le Carré, Isak Dinesen, Grace Paley, Neil Gaiman, and Isaac Asimov are just a few.

Creating a world in which characters live and breathe is just intoxicating. If I am successful, I am a puppet master in a show where the puppets' strings disappear entirely and the reader becomes entranced, becomes part of the show. And if the story resonates with the reader and he or she loves the show and hates to leave, then so much the better.

I usually start with a very vivid image, often of a character going through an unusual situation, a change. The character of course then begins to inhabit a world, to move and interact with others. I am very drawn to settings and how a character fits in his or her environment, how s/he interacts with her surroundings. Often, people overlook where they are as overfamiliar. The details my characters notice are signs of their personality and their development. In Pandora's Panties, the first image was of a woman who receives a pair of very naughty panties. She is hungering for a relationship, something she doesn't acknowledge even to herself. Unbeknownst to her, she becomes a pawn in someone else's life, and the panties propel her through a series of events that, in the end, turn on the magic lightbulb for her.

When I browse in bookshops, which I love to do, covers are a huge draw. I have always been attracted by art and design, and love playing around with them. I look for an image that captures the heart of the story or book, the "image (is) worth a thousand words"! I then try to play with the text so that it adds, not detracts, from the interest of the image. I like contrasts, and I admit that I like to shock. At least a little bit.

It was a challenge to myself, a new direction - to answer the question, would others enjoy my writing?

Messy - I can't keep my desk clean for the life of me. But I write on a laptop, which means my desk is wherever my lap is.

Reading, listening to music, exchanging ideas and support with a couple of fellow writers. And of course, my "day" job, which - though creative - is quite at the opposite extreme from what i have published here.

My next book is the intertwining of two romances: one of them rises like a phoenix from the ashes of sadness, inspired by the unfolding of the other one. It will have a happy ending, but the way there will be paved with bittersweet cobblestones. And it is a vampire story.

Smashwords has made it so easy to dip my toes into the publishing world. I have not done enough promotion, nor enough writing, but it feels so good to see my books being sampled and, even better, read by others.

Marketing? What's marketing? ;-) Seriously, I'm still a novice at this, so I have a lot to learn. I'll come back to this question in a few months or a year - maybe by then I'll have something serious to write.