I was scribbling silly little stories as soon as I could write. I drew a lot, too, when I was younger, so my childhood writing was in graphic novel form. I was probably 11 or 12 before I started writing real narratives.

I was fortunate enough to have a somewhat bohemian childhood. For most of my childhood we lived in a very rural area in upstate NY, and we had goats, and I ran around barefoot and shirtless. We had no TV and no neighbors, so I learned to amuse myself with my own imagination, which is probably the best gift I was ever given as a kid.

I'm a Kindle lover, and after downloading the app on my phone I pretty much can't put my phone down, ever. I really need to get a tablet, or else I might be blind soon!

I'm a sucker for a steamy romance. Historical romances, contemporary romances, M/M, F/F, menage - if there's romance, I'm into it. I also read a lot of what I guess could be called "chick lit" and contemporary fiction. Also, I love really well-written erotica. It doesn't have to be about more than sex if the writing is good and the characters are believable and the chemistry resonates with me.

I have so many! I grew up reading such great, classic children's literature. My first foray into adult books were pretty risque reads. I like my "capital L" Literature a bit smutty and my smut quite literary. Some of my favorites are Anais Nin, Alison Tyler, Alice Hoffman, C.D. Reiss, Joey W. Hill, Tabitha King, Anne Rice (in all her incarnations), Tiffany Reisz, Shakespeare, Sylvia Plath, and Elliot Mabeuse.

The greatest joy of writing for me is the discovery of the characters. I get these ideas, and they take root, and before I know it they've grown organically and without much help from me. I am more or less the conduit. And that's fun, seeing what spits out of my brain and then molding it so it's presentable for readers.

I don't write at a desk. I tote my laptop around, and I have little notebooks for scribbling in. I also put notes in my phone and carry a pad in my purse. If I had to wait to be at a desk to get any writing done it would never happen!

I'm working on a full-length erotic romance about second-chance love. I was inspired by thinking about the different reasons people end their marriages, and the notion of lifelong connections, and I wondered if a couple could make it work again at a different period of their lives. And that raised other questions - what kinds of challenges might they face? What would be the unintended consequences of getting back together when you have teenage kids, for example? I'm hoping to have that published by April 2015.

"Fans" is still a weird term for me. I love the idea that people are excited about my work. I know what it means to make the choice to read one work over another - I'm an avid reader myself and I have a to-read pile that would take me two years to complete even if I never added another book to it. So someone choosing and reading my work - spending that energy on something I've created, is very gratifying and really special to me.

I'm quite an optimist, and I'm also eternally curious. I love seeing what's around the corner. Even when it's bad, it's still pretty good.