I'm no marketing expert- I share my enthusiasm for reading fiction and my writing on social media: on twitter, facebook and my blogs. I advertise there and prefer not to spam people.

Far more cluttered than it should be!

I don't think that my background has really influenced my writing. I have only used the area where I grew up as a setting in one of my earliest short stories. I don't necessarily believe in the maxim "write what you know" but I do believe general life experience can make you a better writer, particularly in terms of characters and their motivations, and writing believable dialogue. As an author, you don't have to set all of your fiction in your home town though - unless you have inspiration for really good stories that are able to flourish out of that.

I enjoyed writing stories as early as being aged 5 or 6 in primary school (elementary school to US readers). I'm not saying that they were any good though!

I started writing Staccato House a long time ago- as far back as 2004. The basic premise was a main character who was taken to a stately mansion and where various entertainments and theatre were being acted out for his benefit- while secretly he was being manipulated and could not trust a single person he met there. That was the primary idea. As the story and plot evolved, I added thriller elements; I introduced references to popular conspiracy theories and occult fiction. I completed a novella version of Staccato House in 2011 which was short-listed for Contact Publishing's Page Turner prize for thriller fiction, before I adapted it into a novel. I suppose there are three main influences on this book: The novel The Magus by John Fowles; the film Eyes Wide Shut directed by Stanley Kubrick; and the website Vigilant Citizen. It's unlike Fowles' novel or Kubrick's film but nevertheless these shaped what Staccato House became. While being my own original work (the essential plot and the novella version was written in 2011 even before I discovered the Vigilant Citizen website, for example)- it would be impossible to deny these influences and inspiration, primarily in terms of themes- secret societies and hidden cults, a narrator or central character manipulated by unknown mysterious forces.

The only method for a writer to improve in what is frankly a solitary vocation- is to read lots, and write lots. If no one is ever able to see, read or buy your work then that can be very demoralising. I have spent a great deal of time and energy on all my fiction, both novels and short stories. I have had short stories published professionally but publishing novels is much harder and it's a competitive field. Agents and publishers are swamped with submissions. Being an indie author allows me to distribute my work to the public- to as high a quality as I am able to make it

I hope it will- it's a wonderful platform as all self-publishing facilitation is.

Fun creating stories: characters, plot, intrigue. When you have the 'creative buzz' and are in free flow, that's the best feeling.

'Fans' is the wrong word! I would like to build an audience of loyal and appreciative readers who enjoy the books, I'm not looking to become famous as an individual or create a personality cult.

Numerous short stories, novellas, and a new novel - I'm currently halfway through the first draft. It's a bit of a departure from my previous books in terms of genre. There are no supernatural elements in it and it's more of an attempt at a literary novel.

So many, in numerous genres. In no particular order, and off the top of my head: Roald Dahl, Tanith Lee, Ursula Le Guin, Raymond Feist, J.R.R Tolkien, George R R Martin, Stephen King, Clive Barker, James Herbert, Brian Lumley, H P Lovecraft, Thomas Pynchon, David Foster Wallace, Neil Gaiman, Susanna Clarke, Dan Simmons, Thomas Ligotti, Philip K Dick, and many many others.

It would have been something in primary (elementary) school- I used to have an alter-ego, a character called 'Tom', that I wrote about. I suppose my first stories were all part of 'Tom's Adventures'. The first story I wrote that ended up being published professionally was a supernatural short story called 'The Prodigal' which I wrote in 1996 or 1997, aged 17/18.