Working. I work for a security company that has some long hours, sometimes starting at 3 a.m. I also have a Dachshund named Gabby that I walk a lot in summer. I have hobbies, an O scale electric train I mess with, shooting, and I recently purchased a metal detector. I keep too busy to write at times, but my work area is boring and I have time to think of stories or something I want to write about. The only trouble is, they don't let me have a computer so that I can type. But if that was the case, I'd rather be writing than what they'd want me to be doing.

I don't read e-books. I'm not allowed electronic devices where I work, which is about the only time I read, because if I'm not at work I'm too busy to read. But I sit for 8-12 hour shifts with nothing to do but read. So I read a lot of books.

Ha ha. Yeah, I was in sixth grade. Our teacher gave us an assignment to write a story. Mine was about surviving out in the winter wilderness. I can't remember much about it now, but it was good enough that my teacher asked me if she could keep it.

I get the idea and start writing. Of course it's always something that takes a lot of research, so I do a lot reading about certain things as I'm writing. It makes it a great learning experience.

No way.

I want my covers to show something that has to do with what I'm writing about. For example, the book I wrote Mass Murder of the Bentler Family, that cover picture is one of the Van Buren County Sheriff Dept. car, with the crime scene tape strung from the car to the ditch. I could have used a picture of one of the murdered girls, but that would be distasteful, and if anyone of the family would see it. I'm not that kind of monster.

If you looked at my book shelves you would see books of Battle of Little Big Horn, that setting on the floor, would reach your waist (if you're 5'7). Same can be said of the Civil War. I have a few books of WW II, and several books on crime, forensics, solving crimes, and actual murder cases. There's a few biographies; George W. Bush, Nixon, Charleston Heston, Robert E. Lee, Lincoln, Grant, Roosevelt (Franklin D.).

Civil War, Indian wars. I have read Redeeming Love, which was good and I liked Father Greeley's Cardinal Sins and Thy Brother's Wife.

Cluttered. I have papers dealing with what I'm writing about all over. But I know where things are, most the time.

My last published book, is actually a re-write because I found more material. But it was a murder of a family that only lived 10 miles from me. I didn't know them, but it happened in the fall around the time of my birthday. Something stirred in me and I had to write their story. Hearing that 9-1-1 call was disturbing, and I knew I had to get that little girl's story-along with her parents and sister's story out.

It's allowed me to get my stories published. Book publishers always said, 'you have a good story, but it's not what we're looking for at this time.' It was also the same rejection letter. I think book publishers all print out the same letter to mail you.

Sometimes it's escape from the everyday monotony. When I wrote Murder at Watchman's Point, which is published under my pen name - it was because I had a great story and I wanted to share it. It took me three years to write it. I did my research, and that was back when the internet didn't exist.

I'm in the process of writing a historical/romance fiction story. I would like to say it's like the Traitor's Wife, but it's different than that. I'm not sure what the name of it's going to be yet, but it takes place in Kentucky at the end of the Civil War, when a captain gets involved with a southern belle.

Robert Utley is probably the most read by me, only because he writes the kind of history I read.

Work.

Born in Texas; my dad was in the air force stationed at Fort Bliss, I actually grew up in Iowa where I was teased relentlessly in school because of my southwest accent, which I still have. Iowa has not influenced my writing, but traveling around the country has, as it's allowed me to experience the country.

My horses and love of history. I use to write a lot of short stories about my horses, growing up on the farm; as my grandparents (my mom's) lived on a farm and I use to stay with them during the summer, and some about historical events,

I love writing, so why not write it to publish it? If you spend hours writing, editing, and making it a great story, why not share it? Granted, my writing isn't for everyone. A lady read a book that I wrote, labored over for years, and told me she didn't like my story, but said it was very well written. I took it as a compliment. Not everyone likes murder.