Around ten or eleven. Star Trek fan fiction with my friend Charlie. These fan fics, which did not feature Kirk or Spock are where the Falcanians would first appear. I even have a letter from Majel Barrett-Roddenberry explaining the canon standing of Star Trek fiction and why Pocket Books did not take unsolicited manuscripts regarding Star Trek. That this writing did not end up as part of the (none canonical) Star Trek mythology is probably a good thing as it let me take what my friend and I thought up into a completely different direction.

Frank Herbert, and James Clavell. There's a great deal of DUNE and Shogun in my work. Also both have had a huge influence on my style.

DUNE - Its grand and dynastic, and philosophical.
Shogun - The immersion in Japanese feudal culture and its storytelling scale really pull you in.
Stranger in a Strange Land - This is one of those books that makes you go, Hmmm. I can see how it inspired the Zell's to form CAW (The Church of all Worlds) plus that ending!
The Romulan Way - by Diane Duane, is the single best piece of Star Trek fiction, ever written. I would say it also had a huge impact on my writing style.
The Cage - Part of The Fifth Milennium series by S.M. Stirling, and Shirley Meier. I really enjoy reading (or writing) strong female characters and Megan Whitelock is very strong. I also love the future primitive Earth that it depicts and the book does not mind being sexy.

Either watching movies, cooking, or working on some sort of artwork.

Many different ways. Often on Facebook, sometimes just by clicking around Amazon.

Yes. It all goes back to that Star Trek fanfic. Which was a 300 page, hand written book. It told the story of how the Falcanians were leaving Earth and their adventure along the way. Oh Khan Noonien Singh also had a guest appearance. Yup the story took place during the Eugenics wars.

A Nook.

Word of mouth and probably my blog. Though I've tried to claim a good amount of internet space to help with discoverability. I'm all about the soft sell.

It has my laptop on it and a light two flash drives, my external hard drive. Oh yes and an action figure of ME on it that my friend got made for my birthday. Plus typically a cup of coffee or tea.

Freedom! I am all about artistic freedom. On another note, I tend to be a loner and prefer to do things my own way. So I think being Indie works best for me.

LOL! It is not “vanilla science fiction”. I wanted it to boldly and bluntly be sexual and violent in the parts that called for it to be sexual or violent and went out of my way to NOT censor myself. I always say, go for the jugular!

I love writing female characters; they’re just more interesting to me.