LOL! Having recently (and temporarily) moved back to Florida, I barely own any furniture. My "desk" is a mattress on the floor. My keyboard sits on my lap. I love this setup because it gives my puppies and kitties the ability to come cuddle with me while I'm working.

I grew up in Staten Island, NY, and spent a good portion of my summers at my aunt's farm in upstate NY. Spending time on my aunt's farm introduced me to the beauty of the Hudson Valley, and it was a no-brainer to set Dark Moon Gates there. My character Willa, shares my love for hiking, nature and the mountains. And critters, of course.

New Paltz is also where I discovered I was a witch, thus giving me the metaphysical background that underlies the magick in my story.

My childhood home was a haunted mansion (I kid you not) and it's likely that the haunting brought out some of my psychic tendencies. We had a huge lot (comparatively) which had been landscaped 200 years before, and my grandmother taught me the names and medicinal & culinary uses of many of the plants there, which is probably the reason that Willa's descriptions are lush with references to the local plantlife.

My mom was a writer, and she started letting me read her work when I was around eight. Inspired by that, I wrote a dreadful and highly plagiarized story about a pony. By the time I was 10 I was writing on a regular basis and helping my mom to edit her work. By the age of 12 or so, I became the youngest member of the Staten Island Writer's Guild.

Dark Moon Gates came to me in a dream, as many of my ideas do. In the dream there were evil faeries staring in my window. Later in the dream I was running around a park with my brother inside a shopping cart and trying to get away from the faeries. I had to start writing about it to figure out what it was about. Both of those scenes eventually make it into the story, but not at the beginning.

Willa, my protagonist, just sort of "grew" herself. I rarely plan out my characters, they just show up and I explore them and they tell me who they are and what they're up to.

The river scene was inspired by a true incident where I nearly got my brother and sister drowned. Mom told us to stay in sight and I took her literally. She could see the other side of the river, right? I was doing some homework for a runes class. The teacher had asked us to write a story incorporating the 2nd aett in order and that scene is what came out of it.

The bus crash scene is also based on a real accident that happened on Mt. Minnewaska. Fortunately I wasn't in it!

As for the manicure scene, that was pure inspiration, and one of my favorite parts of the book!

Right now I'm working on a sequel to Dark Moon Gates, and the second chapter or so features a haunted restaurant that's a combination of the house where I grew up and a weird Chinese restaurant that I made the mistake of eating in once.

My hypnosis teacher talked me into it when I was working on publishing Spellcraft Secrets. Of course that was "just a suggestion." *g* Seriously, we sat down and did the math, and considering that it would take a few years to get published even if it were accepted right away, and since I'd make way more per book, I felt it was the way to go.

I'll be releasing a revised edition of Spellcraft Secrets: The Art of Creating Magic Spells on ebook just as soon as I can finish transcribing it. (My original files burned in a housefire, so I couldn't just use those.) Ah well, an excuse to update.

I'm working on that one! But if you're reading this interview, then it's probably helping.

Being in the flow. There's a moment where you're in the scene and inside the character and the words just spill onto the computer. (Glad they don't get it wet!)

Also I love meeting my characters and discovering who they are.

And last, I just love it when wacky ideas come to me and somehow I figure out how to make them work. Mrs. Ornstedder in Dark Moon Gates was like that. So was the ending. When I started out, I set myself the challenge of deciding that Willa was going to be blinded by the end of the story. I had zero clue how I was going to get her out of it. Or whether or not she even WOULD get out of it. Figuring out the ending was a surprise even for me.

I have fans? Raise your hands, folks, please!

It makes me feel all warm and squishy inside when someone likes my book enough to review it or favorite me.

Hint hint hint!

Sooo much! All at once!

There's Unquiet Memories, the sequel to Dark Moon Gates. Willa is befriended by a ghost and has to solve a 100 year-old murder. Plus her step-dad's back in Mom's life and the faeries are still lurking in the background, waiting to strike again.

Next in the works is Assassin's Flower. D'hara (of Nenfari) has been sent by her father the Khalji to marry the lord of a neighboring kingdom...and assassinate him.

Then there's a fantasy/romance set in the same world (but a different part of it) as the Assassin's Flower series. I don't have a name for it YET, so for my own purposes I've been calling it Lutero after the male lead.

Storm and Tanner (from DMG) have moved to Colorado, starting up a search-and -rescue-, farm and dog rescue. Things get a bit troubled when a family of Teratorns shows up to roost - and pluck victims from the ground. Using a combination of Wiccan and Native American magick, Storm and Tanner must defeat the Thunderbirds.

Along with that I'm working on several books on metaphysics and magick and a self-help book based on the Tarot.

The list is huge. A few: Lawrence Block, especially his Bernie the Burglar series and his books on writing. Sue Grafton. Juliette Marillier Anne Perry, Stephen Donaldson, C.S. Lewis, Anne McCaffrey. And my mom.

Three adorable but bratty puppies. Two sweet yet domineering cats. A husband that I'm madly in love with. A possessed computer that nags till I start writing.

I work as a professional psychic reader. Other than that I'm playing with my critters, gardening, cooking or plotting to take over the world. I'm also working on the plans (and the money) for a large breed/ elder critter/ homeless farm animal rescue, and a pet food pantry.so that folks in need don't have to give up their beloved pets.

Surfing Smashwords!

Yeah...eww. That lousy pony one. The second or so story I wrote was a lot better! I've put it on the back burner but I might come back and do something with it eventually.

I was a kid when Logan's Run came out, and me and my best friend were hooked on the book series. We made personas for ourselves and played that we lived in that world. Then I started writing about our characters. Since I couldn't use the author's world unless I was writing fan-fic, I eventually changed a lot about that world. Then Willa and D'hara (INenfari) and a host of other characters showed up and I put that one aside.

Who was it who said, "I stare at the typewriter till I bleed"?

My writing schedule is a bit spotty. I'll go for weeks where I'm having a block on some part of the story. Usually I'll go to another book or article I'm working on then come back to the "important" one. I don't have specific days or hours that I write, but once I get going I'll usually write several hours at a clip -- I don't even notice time passing when I'm writing.

My schedule is also frequently interrupted by a petting session with one of my critters.

Lately I'm also doing a lot of writing at the cafe where I work as a psychic. (It's the slow season, so we haven't been getting a lot of customers.) Over there I have to write longhand, but usually I write on my computer.

I drag a notebook everywhere I go, as I never know when inspiration is going to strike.

Wow...that'd be hard, as I read so much. (And does Mom reading bedtime stories count?) I read Black Beauty about 8 or 10 times. That one probably cemented my love of and empathy for animals.

I mentally list some of the elements from the story that I'd like to feature. Then I set my hubby loose and he does the artwork. We hash over the first concept and tweak a few things and I set him loose again.

It;s fantastic having a husband who's a graphic artist!

Oh man... Only five? Okay, sheesh! Be that way!

Telling Lies for Fun and Profit by Lawrence Block, Make Your Words Work by Gary Provost and Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. Of all the books on writing that I've ever read (and I've read hundreds!) these three were probably the ones that helped me fine-tune my writing and learn my craft the most.

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier (and the entire first Sevenwaters Trilogy). I was always fascinated by faery tales (I read about 90% of the books in that section at my first local library). The Children of Llyr has always been one of my favorites. Marillier's version is evocative, chilling, uplifting. A true roller-coaster of emotion. The writing is brilliant and the characters stay with you.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. This is one of the first books I recall ever reading on my own. Mom was reading it to us as a bedtime story, and I just couldn't wait every night, so I snagged the copy and read it alone in between. I adored the whole premise. Just what a creative magickal kid needed to stir her imagination. My favorite character has got to be Mr. Tumnus.

OKAY I JUST CAN'T do it! A few more!

Anything from Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series by Anne Perry. This series combines two of my guilty pleasures: What I call "costume drama" (movies set in a historical setting, with fantastic period costumes but I guess books can count too) with murder mysteries.

Spiral Dance by Starhawk, the first book I ever read on Wicca/Witchcraft and which led me to my path.

Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books. I can't guess how many times I've read the whole series over and over. My ultimate dream was always to start my own wilderness homestead. Besides being darn good books, I actually learned the fundamentals of frontier life from these books. What they didn't spell out in infinite detail, they inspired me to research. Wilder's books are responsible for me knowing how to: card wool, weave, build a smokehouse, annd many other skills. LOL how to milk a cow I learned up close and personal.

Any bloody thing by Marge Piercy. Sex Wars and Woman on the Edge of Time are two of my favs. Mom thinks I write like Piercy. I only wish! I dunno, you judge.

Anything. Everything. Mostly murder mysteries, fantasy. sf, metaphysical, craft and cooking, books on the art of writing, faery tales and mythology. Once in a while, a biography or romance. I'm a chronic reader. (I hear there is no cure!) I'll read the shampoo bottle in the shower if there's nothing else.

Well not of choice, as it was a gift, but it's a panavision, I believe. I got it only about a year ago and I LURVE it!

I used to have a rather big jewelry/personal website and it was pretty easy to market Spellcraft Secrets there. Sadly the business died in a fire.

Lawrence Block's Telling Lies for Fun and Profit.

Mom and I used to read to each other. We'd trade places, one of us reading and the other doing house chores and this is one we read together. (So already it's one of my fav's just because reading together was so much fun.)

The most important thing I learned was send a bear after your character, give him a tree to climb, let the bear climb the tree too. Then let the tree limb break...into a river. Then let the character find a canoe. And give a canoe to the bear. In other words, give your character challenges and more challenges, and every time she's maybe safe, give her another one.

The other "best lesson" from that one was to start in the middle of action.

My work really falls into two categories: Metaphysical/Magickal fiction and Metaphysical/Magickal Non-fiction.

Yes there's a generation gap between my YA books (Witches Gates Saga) and my Assassin's Flower Series. Hey I'm an "older" person" who enjoys YA and SF/Fantasy And dang it I will just write what I love writing.

I hope that what you''ll find is a strong protagonist who will inspire, confound and illuminate you.

Characters generally "reveal" themselves to me, rather than my creating them.

D'hara (Nenfari) came to me from a vision of a woman standing on the steps of a high tower, and I had to write to find out who she is. She's probably based on the kick-butt woman I wish I could be IRL. Illistanirda is sort of my anti-Mom. (All the teenage angst, none of the reality of my real mother.)

Willa is an amalgam of me and the sort of kid I think I'd have if I'd decided to have kids, while her Mom is an amalgam of me and my own Mom.

Other characters in my books often come out of nowhere. I have no idea in heck, where Mrs. Ornstedder (the troll from the Witches' Gates Saga) came from, but I bless the day she showed up in my life. l feel like she was a stroke of brilliance. She started out as just one of a list of MIA/out sick teachers and turned into a story-changing twist.

A very few of the characters are based on people I actually know. James (Witches' Gates Saga is a buddy I used to play D&D with. I turned him gay, gave him a gardening habit and made him co-owner of a real bakery in the town the story was set in. Hope the real "James" doesn't mind.

Likewise, Mara (Witches's Gates Saga) is based on my beloved surrogate Mom. (My real Mom's best friend and the woman who introduced me to witchcraft by gifting me with Spiral Dance.) Coke-bottle glasses, Jewish/Brooklyn accent and all, it's pure Diane, doll. I hope she doesn't mind my tweaking her spiritual path a little. Mara/Diane was a counselor at a hospital after 9/11 and her ;life is still reverberating from the emotional challenges she encountered then.

Storm (Witches' Gates's Saga) is about to launch her own mystery/horror series. She's based on the me that I wish I was.and am hoping to become. My dream is to create an animal rescue, Storm's already got it going. She's a blackbelt in Karate (I'm only yellow thus far.) and a seasoned Witch. and her hubby Tanner is based on my IRL hubby Kent. a brilliant graphic designer, laser physist and ballroom dance instructor. (Yep when I married him I got the motherlode! That's what Storm has with Tanner too!)

Having moved to S. Colorado where she's setting up a dog rescue and Search and Rescue operation Storm is confronted with a wave of disappearances that point to a Thunderbird out of control.

My first husband was an artist and my first sale was a profile showcasing his work for a magazine in his industry. They paid me a whole $100. (Hey that's still not bad!) He managed to intercept the acceptance letter and surprised me with not only that, but the gift of a Sharp Intelliwriter (word processor typewriter). LOL at the time, the Sharp held an AMAZING whole ten pages of memory!

My second sale was to Polyhedron Magazine, a club/fan mag that catered to Dungeons and Dragons. Wow, of the articles they took that month, they chose my Skully's Bar and Bait to actually illustrate. I was floored! My husband had the AWESOME comic graphic made into a t-shirt for me.

It started with a vision of a woman standing on the edge of steps on a high tower watching the sunset. She looked as though she was contemplating suicide, so naturally I wanted to know who she was and what she was up to.

Turns out she was the daughter of the High Assassin and she felt that both of her parents were disappointed with her because she hadn't accomplished "the Change," whatever that was. I had to explore her!

It started out as a novella. Too long for a magazine, too short for a novel. So no publisher would touch it. OUCH! I edited and pared out every word I could, but I still couldn't get it down to sellable size. I was starting to feel heartbroken. This was the early days of the internet and e-publishing hadn't even been thought of yet.

At one point I sent it to MZB for Sword and Sorceress. No go yet again. Marion Zimmer Bradley PERSONALLY sent me a rejection letter. She absolutely loved the story! But it was waaaay too long. (Yeah, I knew.) She said she couldn't even suggest a single way to shorten it because the story wouldn't have been complete. So she suggested I turn it into a full length novel. WOW! Best rejection letter EVER! I treasured that darn thing until it burned in the house fire. LOL if I still had it, I'd post the darn thing on my website.

So Nenfari sat in my drawer for years. Eventually I picked it up dusted it off and started working on the full novel. Eeek! Then the house fire happened and burned most of the new chapters I'd written. Oh well, I suppose when I recreate them, they'll be better than the first time.

Then Smashwords and e-publishing showed up. The thrilling thing is that here there's no too long or too short. Like Goldilocks it's all "just right."

Yeah. *sigh* It was Halloween night. We'd just moved to Colorado, and were living in a trailer while we were working on building a house. An electric blanket caught on fire. I'd just gotten out of bed from a nap about three minutes earlier to watch Next Food Network Star when we started smelling smoke.

Every single thing I owned, including my computer, reams and reams of my writing and a lot of irreplaceable personal things burned to a crisp in about 5 minutes. Including several thousand dollars worth of food -- I'd stocked beans and pasta and other supplies enough to last six months. Had I only known, I would have donated it to a food pantry.

And so much for safety - one smoke alarm that didn't go off, and TWO fire extinguishers, neither of which worked! ARGH! Oh, and I later found out that one of the local fire-fighters saw our fire and figured it was a Halloween bonfire, so didn't report it. And drat- zero insurance.

Anyhow, I grabbed Zen (my dog) knowing he'd only create trouble, while my hubby tried putting out the fire. I was incredibly calm. Squeaky (my cat) escaped out the front door.

Despite it all, it was a pretty magickal experience. Just as we were wising up to the idea that our entire field might be set on fire (wildfires are a big concern in southern. CO) and that our yaks were in danger, a wind swept up. It created a swirling vortex that blew towards the interior of the fire (yes really, from 4 directions at once) and kept our fields safe. Then the snow started falling - first snow of the year - and helped blanket the fire.

We had our roommate from FL living on our land with us in a separate trailer, and we spent the first few hours shivering in our car then moved into his (very cramped and tiny) trailer when we realized we were freezing.

I'd gotten out of the house with the clothes I was wearing - no shoes, no pocketbook. Because my driver's license had been issued in Florida I couldn't even replace that unless I found a way to drive there. LOL I still haven't replaced it years later!

Squeaky disappeared into the wilderness and I spent seven weeks in the woods, calling his name and hoping he'd come home. He returned (thin as a rail but alive!) two days before the Solstice.

Meanwhile we went into town the next morning and stayed at a motel run by a friend of ours. (wonderful woman you are, Rose) who immediately went on a food and clothing drive for us. And some other kind people donated a camper-top trailer for us to live in.

As we're hanging out in the motel, a stray cat came along and adopted us. Mommy loves you, RazMuffin! He kept me sane through the process of searching for Squeaky. Right now he's sitting on the "couch" /mattress purring at me.

And more good news, since my Mom and I edit each others work, she had copies of a good portion of my writing, and was able to send it to me.

Yep. Real Tibetan yaks. Dri (females) actually. When we decided to move to CO and start a ranch/farm, hubby decided we should have yaks. Yes I thought he was insane - for about five minutes. Then I did some research and found out that they're super-efficient, eating 1/3 of the fodder that a normal cow does. They're perfect for the terrain elevation and climate of S. Colorado and they give milk, butter (83% butterfat) and wool ($16/ounce!). I'm told their meat is delicious, but there's not a chance we'll eat our girls.

So we bought three:

Yonkers, our herd matriarch, an ornery beastie who actually gored our roommate and another friend who disrespected her. She'd been abused, so it took us a year or more to tame her. Shortly before we left CO, my hubby actually fell asleep in their corral and she didn't gore or stomp him, and in fact came up to give him licks.

Yazoo (or Zuzu) was the older daughter. Absolutely the sweetest yak on the planet. We adore her!

Yeti was Yonkers' newest baby, born just after we bought them. Such a sweetie but Zuzu already had our heart.

Ferdie was Zuzu's first baby. She was born right in our corral. We were terrified. It was our first baby birth on our farm and we didn't know what to do. Nothing, fortunately. Yaks birth super-easy. At 15 minutes old, Ferdie walked over and started licking my hand. I about died with joy.

We had to sell our yaks because mom-in-law has Alzheimers and we needed to move back to FL to take care of her. We found them a fantastic home with a super-nice guy and he's agreed to sell them back to us when we return to CO. I miss the girls desperately. There's nothing so joyful as a yak bouncing and grunting and dancing in your pasture.

Okay. Like I said, it's a romance/fantasy.

Jiana n'vas Montevigione is a healer by trade and the daughter of a local lord. Tero n'var tel Trathegor is the head of his own neighboring clan. The Montevigigiones and Trathegors have been at war for centuries . The men of Tero's clan have a curse on them, thanks to one of Jiana's ancestors.. The curse can only be broken by a healer. Of course, Lutero doesn't know that's what Jiana is when he kidnaps her and holds her hostage, hoping to exchange her for the healer they need.

One of my inspirations for this book was The White Cat by Grimm. We''ll see what comes out of it.

I suspect that I learned world-building from being an entire D&D junkie from a young age.

Well, for the Witches' Gates Saga, I wanted to keep the magick as " real" as possible. The spells and rituals are pretty identical to what I'd use with my own students and tradition. The coven itself is modeled after the ideal coven I'd love to have. (I'm presently a Solitary, though I preside over a trad.)

The faeries (and the trolls) just sort of grew out of the needs of the plot and various inspirations that popped up.

For the Assassin's Flower Series most of the little touches that makes my world and the city of Ifarsadh unique, pretty much came out of the blue and I decided to run with them. When I "looked" at D'hara, she told me that it was the Month of Sunsets and I realized that their planet is so huge that one "day" takes an entire year.

Although this story is fantasy, I've tried to keep the planet as scientifically realistic as I could.

The Critters:
So far I've introduced five new species:

Silk goats are goats bred with a spider genetic (real scientists are actually trying this). The nergan is an antelope used for dray/pulling work. It's a bit like a wildebeest but slow, steady and dull. The cabris, on the other hand is a swift and dainty antelope used for riding.

Vulmice are..yep, a combination of vultures and mice...and piranhas. They stalk the desert Waste in great hordes and woe be any traveler who comes across a clutch of them, as they'll leave naught but bones.

Trifang cats are related to cougars. They live in forested and mountainous areas. White-furred during the "night months" they blend in with the "Wild Fog" Their incisors grow at the center of their jaw, appearing as one large fang rather than the two that they actually are Thus their bite marks are triangular. They're the heraldic symbol (and curse) of House Trathegor

Crownbucks are based on Megaloceros the extinct Irish Elk. Their huge and beautiful racks make them rare and sought-after and they tend to have a bit of trouble with their huge antlers getting caught in trees. Eventually they may go extinct yet again, but for now they're the heraldic symbol of House Montevigione.

The Mythology:
Thus far, only four sects have identified themselves to me.
Argath is the Death god. Nuff said. Well except that the Trathegors are said to be his minions.
Eltanii is the goddess of Birth and Childbearing.. Red ochre is sacred to her.
Shagul is the god of Prophecy. His priests wear smoke-darkened white robes, and you can tell how new a priest is by his robes. The more clean/white, the newer the priest. Shagul's clergy are a gory lot, as their job is to prophecy the life of royal children. Which they do by sacrificing the babies of local commoner women and reading the entrails.
Zarta Time-giver was a magician who rose to the status of goddess-hood after sacrificing herself for the khalji (king) she loved. Somewhere along her career she harnessed the power of the winds and turned them into a clock device. Each change of winds signals a different hour. I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with Zarta and how her clock thing is pertinent to anyone's real life, but I suspect I'll eventually get to explore that and her romance with the Khalji.

The City of Ifarsadh:
The Assassin's Flower series is based on my version of a Moroccan / Arab desert oasis city. During the light half (daytime) of the year, people live in this towered city where the desert breezes though the latticed walls of their homes and towers help to alleviate the heat. During the dark (night) half of the year, people move into a series of glass-walled caverns. Although their origin is unknown, it is possible that these caverns were the result of a nuclear blast that glassified the terrain.

During the Light Season the populace subsists on "normal" desert plants. During the Dark Season they eat fungi that grow in the caverns.

The Society:
Ifarsadh was originally ruled by a caste/race of assassin-doplegangers with inheritance and shifting ability exclusively on the female line. A few hundred years ago the Men From Beyond the Mountains (possibly humans from another planet) infiltrated and took over rulership of the city. The city is ruled by a Khalji (king) . The assassins/doppelgangers are led by the High Assassin (Ru'al harani) who plot to overthrow the Khalji's rule.

My Mom. Besides teaching and encouraging me to write, she is an inspiration on every level. If I'm a decent human being and a creative person she's why. LOVE YOU Mom!

My sister: the Queen of Hard Knocks, Jet has had every possible bad thing in the world come at her. Yet she manages to survive and thrive. An awesome mother an amazing woman. My little sis taught me to take life by the balls.

My Grandparents:

Open Communists during the McCarthy era, they taught me the value of standing for your beliefs no matter how unpopular. And true, true bravery.

Grandpa was a scientist, carpenter, artist. philosopher and madman. He started talking to me about his favorite sci-fi novels when I was about 8.

Grandma's prime directive was that she loved children above all else and was continually trying to build a better world for them. Her major struggle was the promotion of literacy. and she worked most of her life as a remedial reading teacher.

Babcia: My grandma on Dad's side, she was crazy and proud enough to stand up to the Nazis during WWII. She's also the person who first taught me both herbalism and magick. The woman was sheer balls and I only wish I could be as fantastic as she was.

Media Violet Scahaffer Antonsen: Great Grandma was a Spiritualist psychic medium. She moved our family out of San Fran about 2 weeks before the "big one" earthquake back in '06. Feels great to follow in her footsteps.

Stan Lee. I wasn't ever much into superheroes, but when So You Want to be a
Superhero came out, I was hooked. Here's a reality show calling for people to stand up and be good humans.

No doubt I'll think of more.