I read books. And more books. Lots. Of. Books. Science Fiction. Fantasy. Romance. Crime. Paranormal. Suspense....You know? It's just easier to put what I DON'T read. I don't like horror. I read Stephen King. Once. He's an excellent writer. I 'saw' everything he described. I was creeped out. Horrified. LOL Mission accomplished and I don't think I've gotten over reading It.
I have worn spots on my e-readers and calluses on my thumbs which I leverage the readers against. And every writer is my favorite author. Even the ones I want grab by the shoulders and say, 'Please let me edit your book! You have so many grammatical errors you drive me NUTS!' Because if the idea is good, I wanna see where it goes.

I have to say the Nook. It has nifty buttons on the side so my oily fingers never touch the screen OR I don't need a pointer to jab the screen to turn the page. I can also choose HOW I want the buttons to go since it gives page turning options. I do have a lovely little Aluratek that lets me turn pages without touching the screen as well. AND it has MP3 player capabilities. Love love love that thing! Sadly, its hard to get nowadays. Have yet to find its equivalent. :(

There's this great bunch of people that started a place called Fiverr.com. If you want to find somebody to do anything, that's your go to place. I think its pretty funny that there are people who will even ghost write your book for you. HAHAHA!
I suppose that could be great for memoirs.

My. Desk? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Sorry. Sorry. I'll calm down...HAHAHAHA! Okay okay, got that out of my system. My desk. My husband got a solid piece of scrap wood, cut two 9 in. pieces off of it, trimmed some wood stakes and used four shelf brackets to make a 'lap' table. It's perfect for my laptop and I'm supposed to put it over my legs and lean back against some pillows? but that doesn't happen. See...underneath where my legs go? It's the perfect place for a cat nap...or three or four. So I sit tailor fashion. Can't lean back either. Pillow's are taken. Even as I write, one of my cats, BFF, is sitting on my mouse pad watching me-- OOPS, there went the mouse. Just a sec. Okay. Where was I...right. I also have 'parrot' cats. Yes, yes, I have a cat or two on my shoulders. One in my lap...or three if they like each other. This is what happens when you take in kitties that have been abandoned. You loose your house. You're lucky they let you stay. You stay because you have TUNA NIGHT! Everyone loves tuna night. And remember the fastest way to get where you want is to run across the keyboard. :D I try to catch all the cat typing, but they may have added a thought or two when I wasn't looking. My Gaming desk is a whole 'nother matter. But what I've described is where I write. My gaming desk is in the main room and lots of noise in there cause my hubby's computer is in there too. Can't think up descent plots in there.

I grew up in the midwest. For those of you who don't know, there is no NOISE in Illinois! Except up near Chicago. LOL And no, I'm not from Chicago. When I was in the army, and people heard I was from Illinoise, they'd ask what part of Chicago I was from. (roll eyes) I'm from down state. Farming country. LOTS of corn. LOTS and LOTS. What influenced me? Well, I don't know what they teach kids these days, but we started learning to read in Kindergarten. I. Was. Hooked. I read everything that I could get my hands on. The library was my home as I got older. As a matter of fact, the librarians were so used to seeing me they didn't see me anymore and I got locked in one night. HEHEHE I came up for air about an hour after they closed and thought 'Wow! Meh, my parents won't miss me.' I did get hungry though, so eventually I decided to find a way out--through a window.
I'll say that E. E. 'Doc' Smith grabbed me especially hard and I wished I could write a great story about other worlds. And oh I soooooo wanted a dragon that could talk to me and be my special friend like the Dragonrider's of Pern. ALAN DEAN FOSTER with Pip and Flinx, oh my GOSH! And how could I not mention Tolkien!!!! So many more Andre Norton and Philip Jose Farmer and soooo many more. So I thought, I'm gonna make up a world all my own. I got a notebook and a pen and started writing.

I think around 14 or 15. I thought I'd give it a try. It was harder than I thought. It was one thing to sit and THINK it, but you have to put actions to those thoughts. On paper. You could 'say' "He walked over and picked up a pen." but...well, how did he walk? Did he march? Stomp? Over to where? A desk? Mudpuddle? And what kind of pen? What color? Was it blue ink? Red? Scratch scratch scratch, rewrite rewrite rewrite! But I kept working at it. I, and so many millions, was so GLAD when word processing came along! Cut. Paste. Delete. LOVE that! Now when I have trouble with a section, I can go work on another part and pop it in where I want it later. Yay!

Let me tell you this: I invented the VCR! Yes I did. I sat one day after missing Star Trek and thought up a machine that would record TV shows so you could watch them anytime you want. And I thought up nanites! Oh, I didn't CALL them that, but the idea? I did that. Guess what? They have a name for my idea and it's nanites. This story has been in my head for years and I thought, 'Gee, I better write it quick cause they keep inventing everything I've thought up!' LOL It's been a darn close race. SG-1 and their replicators were in the right direction. Blade Runner had an interesting twist too, but not quite mine, so here I am. And since my husband got me involved in online games, I thought 'Oooooooooo....what if....', so that got into the spin. I've done a heck of a lot of research on the science end to make the fantasy believable. So now fantasy can be explained by science. :D

Grunt. Sigh. Well, I tried the agent thing. Sent in resume and story chapters again and again. I got one interested nibble, but I was so ignorant of the publishing industry that I blew it. Then I got busy doing other things and stopped writing. Then I took a writing course and there was starting to be talk at that time about e-books. Then someone came up with self publishing and I thought THAT was the way to go! Still, I delayed. Then my husband said, "We need a bigger house for all these cats. And I want some land around us so they don't get hit by cars," and a few more reasons and he says, "Why don't you write one of your books and self publish and get rich so we can do that." I laughed. One day, I told him about a book plot I was thinking of and he was so totally sucked in he forgot it was a book plot and he was outraged by the actions of some of the characters. That was the real turning point. I thought if the plot hooked him so well, and he's not EVEN into fiction, maybe, just maybe, I've got something. However, my idea was just so big.... A new style of writing came about. Serial writing. Where an author publishes just a few chapters? THAT'S IT!!! I was saved. So here we are; the start of my mega idea broken into serial form and independently published with people like Smashwords making dreams come true for many aspiring writers!

The fact that Smashwords exists at all is the contributing factor! Authors don't need an agent, at least not right away. No publisher to tell you to rewrite your book either. I remember a story Douglas Adams told his readers about how he sent in a manuscript and it came back with scribbles all over it from people commenting and suggesting and rewriting his book! He called his agent who called the publisher and apologies were given all around, but think about that. Douglas Adams. Some idiots rewriting a well established writer's work. Yeah. Smashwords. MY book! Not a publisher's. Thank you Smashwords!! Look at Dara Joy. In dispute with HER publisher who cheated her and she can't write about characters SHE invented because of contracts. Thanks again Smashwords. My book is my own!
Also, Smashwords puts your work OUT THERE! It goes places I never dreamed of sending it. I LIKE that! It takes on some of the advertising. They make money off books you sell so they WANT you to be a success and they help that happen. So, THANKS Smashwords.

Making my characters live! Sometimes when I take a break, like eating--that's important :D--I want to get back to the writing to find what happens next. Only...well... I'm writing what happens next! So I have to wait. Darn it! I hate waiting.
I like when my characters surprise me. For example, when Cryson first proposed! I didn't know he was going to do that! And he keeps doing it!
Sometimes I've written myself into a wall. Well, how am I going to get out of THIS one. I just spent an hour writing myself into this corner and I am NOT throwing this work away so... GET OUT OF IT. Then one of those "Oh my gosh!" moments hit and there you are! Out on the other side and maybe it was in an unexpected way, but there it is! And it ties in with something else that has happened or is going to happen! LOVE that!

Working on book 3. It's a set up for book 4, which is the same day TWICE. Time Travel. Ya gotta love it. Book 4 is going to take a bit to write, so I hope to get started soon. It's Parts I and II together. I've decided not to break up the style of one day at a time. It IS the same day after all.

Well...They're on this ride with me. So I don't want to leave them hanging. Lisanne Norman I don't wanna be! At least in that respect. LOVE her Sholan Alliance series. Re-read this series so many times I had to buy the e-books. It took 25 YEARS to get those 9 books out. I stuck by her as a loyal fan, but golly it was a hardship. I kept thinking, 'What if the world ends before the last book?' I'll never find out how it ends!!! I can't DO that to my fans. I HOPE I won't do that. Oh golly, now I've stirred an interest in breaking out her books again. O.o Some books are just worth the wait. I hope I write like that for MY fans. I hope they find my books as hard to put down. Because I enjoy going to other places with other authors works, I want to do the same for MY readers. To take them away for a little while, and to bring them back again when they're ready to visit.

I go to the free books sections or under a certain price section. You can find the first books in series there and you can see if you like an author's style. From there you can get the rest of the series. That's how I found Anna Hackett and Linsey Hall. I'm a big fan now.
From there I go to my favorite genres; sci-fi and fantasy. Have to be careful, hehe, (click, click, click), yeah; could go broke there, but HEY! I'll be entertained. :D
I also have a friend who's as avid a reader as I am. "Here's a book you might like." So we introduce each other to new authors.