1. Reading. I have about 20 of books on my to-read list.
2. I like to go to the cinema about once per week.
3. Gardening. We have a quarter acre that needs constant attention.
4. Facebook and Twitter take up a couple of hours each day.
5. Dreaming up ideas for my next book.
6. Supporting my 3 children and 2 grandchildren.

Through contacts with other writers, mostly, although Amazon send me suggestions that sometimes catch my eye.

Yes. I wrote 5 SF stories as a younger teenager. I have them still in a copybook.

I spend 3-6 months outlining each book before starting to write it.
Draft 1 takes about 3 months. I try to write 1,000 words per day.
My editor tears draft 1 to pieces. Putting it back together again usually takes another 3 months.

Nope, but it was probably something by James Thurber. My parents were very fond of his stories. In my opinion, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is the greatest short story ever written.

I have a talented cover designer. I dream up the basic idea and she brings it to life.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams - humour and satire to die for.
Perfume by Patrick Süskind - a wonderful, timeless story, beautifully written.
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré - the ultimate spy story by a master craftsman.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck - A classic story of the great depression.
Butcher Boy by Pat McCabe - A tour de force in Irish idiom and a crazy, incredible story.

WW2 historical fiction, thrillers, spy stories, Science Fiction, WW2 history. I've read almost all of Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther books, for example, and all of Robert Harris's work.

Apple iPad. I also have a kindle (mark I) but there's no comparison.

Twitter and Facebook.

It's a 3-legged table (the fourth leg is broken). The desk's style is "cluttered", but I do a tidy up every 6 months or so. The room is tiny - smaller than a prison cell - but it has a window without bars.

I went to school in a Christian Brothers school in Ireland. I was one of the lucky ones: I was bright and avoided the beatings for the most part. My parents were avid readers, and I caught the craze early on.

I wrote a few stories in my teens in the 1950s, then nothing much until 1995, when I lost my job. I have been writing full time since 2007.

ZUGZWANG is a short detective story, set in Munich in 1933. Adolf Hitler is the new Chancellor. A municipal police commissar and his assistant must catch a brutal serial killer in spite of interference from the SS. The story is FREE on Smashwords.

I went through the usual mill of querying agents and gathering hundreds of rejection slips from both sides of the Atlantic. As soon as self-publishing became an option, I jumped at it. No regrets. My books are selling well.

Sometimes when writing a book, the story comes alive. It's like magic. Difficult to explain.

My fans (readers) mean everything to me. They validate my work. Without them I have no basis for writing any more.

I'm between books. I have been writing WW2 historical thrillers since 2007. I think it's time to switch to something new. I may write a SF book next, a dystopian story for young adults, perhaps.

Douglas Adams, John le Carré, Steinbeck, Robert Harris, Patrick Süskind, Pat McCabe, Jim Williams, Alistair McLean, Thurber, Flannery O'Connor, Patrick Campbell, Frank O'Connor, Wodehouse, Eoin Colfer, Colin Bateman, Chis Brookmyre, Richard Dawkins, Asimov, Sheckley, R A Lafferty, Ray Bradbury, Philip K Dick, and lots more...