When I'm not writing i am employed as a Mental Health Technician. However I prefer to spend my time with several of my hobbies that include miniature painting, role-playing and playing World of Warcraft. Other than that I'm often watching anime and Netflix with my wife and trying to detach my clingy cat from myself.

I've used a few free/discounted ebook news letters to find some ebooks but mostly I randomly browse through genres on Amazon. If someone recommends an ebook to me i will take a look and them frog hop from that suggestion to other books by the author.

The first story i wrote was about superheros, being a big comic book fan growing up. It was only a few pages long but in high school i rewrote the story. Both times it was bad, just bad in all ways.

I start with an idea and then build from that first idea, often over building the world for the story but I feel more comfortable knowing what the world is that I'm writing. After that I takes notes on the idea, the world, some of the characters and events that i want to see occur in the story. I don't use a heavily detailed approach but i do use a more structured process that others.

The first story i remember reading was Poe's "The Tell Tale Heart", since then Poe has been my literary idol. The dark Gothic imagery and the utter feelings of forlorn, terror and guilt drove me to read as much of Poe's works as i could and then branch out to H.P. Lovecraft, Clive Barker, Stephen King, Edger Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard among others.

Truthfully I suck at cover design, I just lack the artist's eye for covers. So i mock up what i think is a decent design and than ask my wife's opinion, and since she's an artist she often tells me how poorly I did and what I need to do to correct the mistakes. Regardless I try and use an image that sums up some important aspect of the story and keep the text modest and non-distracting.

Asking for my five favorite books is like asking a parent what child is their favorite while all of the children are in the room. However i love the Complete Works of Edger Allan Poe, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Legacy and J.S. Morin's Black Ocean series.

I read anything that i like. I will read, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, paranormal, ghost stories and even tried some romance once or twice.

I use two devices currently, an iPhone and a Tab S2 tablet. It all depends on if size matters for what device i use, being stuck in a cramped place means i prefer a smaller device. At any rate both are running the Kindle app.

My desk is one of the few anally maintained things i do. However since i mainly use my laptop for writing my desk is just wherever i set up camp for writing. Otherwise i usually have a few book on my desk, some miniatures, whatever I'm drinking and cat treats.

I grw up in the middle of bum fuck Egypt, and i do mean that since i grew up in Southern Illinois where it's called Little Egypt. Very rural farming area filled with little towns and long streaks of tree filled nothing in-between the towns. Because of this i spent a lot of time growing up with reading all kinds of books, books were my escape. So now i find that when i write stories i gravitate to small town settings and characters that are flawed in some way but real and relatable.

It has always been a dream of mine to be published. About twenty years ago i had a tentative book deal for writing a cyberpunk novel but before my first deadline the company folded under. I never expected to get another chance so when ebooks began to emerge i thought i might have a chance but I had no idea where to start. Flash forward too many year to my University graduation and i thought it was now or never and took the plunge looking up how to become an indie author and ebook publisher.