A few years back. I got to thinking that I had enjoyed writing when I was a tacker, through school and in university, and really had no good reason not to continue. I had toyed with the idea of knocking out a book on a few occasions but did not know where to start.
Then, one day, I read a particularly brutal book. Not brutal in that it was confronting. Brutal in that it made me annoyed just to read it. It was an arduous task to turn to the next page. I won't mention the title, but let's just say that I thought it did not deserve its acclaim.
"Really?" I yelled at the pages, "Really? Come on! That's a terrible story!"
A little voice said, "OK, fine. So you write something, then!"
So I did.

Frustration, I guess. Once I neared the end of my first serious bit of writing I sought to have it published. That's when the headaches began. The traditional print industry, it seems, is a different world to anything I could imagine. The are authors, of course, and agents and editors and proof readers and various publishing houses, vanity publishers and distributors and retailers! It drive me bonkers!
I could not get published without an editor. I could not get an editor without an agent. I could not get an agent without having already been published. I just wanted to write a book!
Then I stumbled across Calibre e-book generator and I gave that a crack, which got me a little excited. Seeing my own book (Shockingly unedited and formatted) on an e-reader drove home just how real it could be. Then I scoured the net and came across Smashwords. I was skeptical, at first, but, once I read through the literature and style guide and concept behind it, I embraced it.
Go Smashwords!

Starting from the top and proof reading what I've done and fix up a lot of the silly errors so that I can crack on with the rest of the Adaptation series in peace. The are a few books left to go before I can close the lid on it and I don't wish to leave anything out because I was hasty. I also have a couple of other stories, unrelated, that need a bit of love. I'm a little scared, truth be told, in revisiting them. The last time I went back and looked over something I'd written earlier I nearly gagged from embarrassment. Admittedly, it was code, but that's beside the point.

Programming my guts out. There's always so much to do at work, with deadlines to meet and new features that need to be developed and bus that crop up (bugs? What bugs?). I take a break for lunch to type out a bit more of a story, swapping one monitor with piles of code for another with piles of words.
When I'm not at work or writing, I'm with my lovely wife and boy, enjoying my family.

Believe it or not, it's similar to how I approach software development. No, I cannot apply test driven development methodologies. Not really. But I do plan ahead, get the big picture and then work out down to the finer details. It's an incremental thing. Sometimes I know what I want to be on the page, but it just doesn't fit. Other times I have to start again with a Chapter, tearing it out, throwing it away.
One thing I have learnt is to start with a premise, as a argument or statement that needs to be proven or demonstrated. That then gets placed on top of a theme. With these two constructs I can keep the idea focused.
With the Adaptation series, each book has one premise for the antagonist and one for the protagonist, allowing me to work with a broader scope than a single premise would allow.

I'm not a graphic designer by any measure. So to make the cover design I had to come up with something that would convey the message of the book without presupposing plot points or cheapening the context. It had to be obscure but obvious, familiar and yet distant. And I had to make it such that it would fit across the series. Considering humanity is related to the body, and the body is familiar, it was only natural to concentrate on the eyes, hands and mouth.

At the moment, old school Horror. It's not particularly horrific in the sense that it makes one's skin crawl, but there definitely is a suspense relating to the unknown, the hidden, the forbidden. Even though the books are from the early part of the 20th century and talk of horse and carts and gas lanterns, in a way the ideas are still very appropriate today.
The imagery conjured up would be something a Hollywood CGI crew would spend weeks on, and yet the author is able to express it in a handful of precise statements, driving my imagination to picture exactly what he wants it to see. Compelling stuff!

Currently it's my nexus phone with Aldiko as the application. It's not too bad under normal light, but it does hurt the eyes, some. I was tossing up whether to buy an e-reader when they first came out. I guess I never got around to it. I still think I should buy one, though. I love the e-ink, it's so easy on the eyes! I guess if I was pressed, I'd like to save up and get a Kobo Aura. Those things look shmicko!

It's a bit cliche, but I *make* the time. I first started off tapping out my books on a little palm-pilot device. Completely unsuited to the task, of course, and I'd be dropping letters here and there as the screen became more worn and unresponsive. But at least I could type anywhere I wanted; in bed, out at lunch, at a friend's place. I upgraded to my laptop and little by little I concentrated my efforts.
The television goes off. Surfing the net has to wait. My own little hobbies and programming projects are put to the side. At least half of my lunch break goes toward it. I bought a little stand that goes next to my bed on which I can put my laptop so that I can tap away in bed.
A word of warning to those thinking of doing the same: Writing in bed can be great, and relaxing and productive, but, when you hit that edge where your brain starts to wander about and your fingers get free run of the keyboard, you can end up writing some real tosh!

I can't say I remember the first story. I imagine it would be a Mister Men book. But when I was a pup I'd read (and re-read) a green and gold bound 'Celtic Fairy Tales'. Each of the stories were fantastic. I knew what the outcome was going to be, having read them so often, but still I was entranced at the possibilities, of the strange creatures and happenings.
I remember a fair bit of Lewis Carroll, Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne, Tolkien, Clive Lewis, Robert Stevenson, all of which I got fanatical about at some stage. I'm not sure it was their story technique or the characters or the message they were driving, but I loved them all.
I read the Bible a fair bit. I can't quote chapter and verse or anything but there is a plethora of wisdom bound in those pages.