I could talk about my early stuff, back when I was a kid writing Super Duck. But I really started writing with aspirations toward publication in 2010-2011. February 2011 was my first contract, and it was all downhill from there - no stopping me once I had the rush of selling something I created.

I grew up in Eastern Washington (No, not Seattle. No, not Spokane. That big flat, hot part between the two.). I don't know how it influenced my writing, necessarily (outside of my first book being set in my hometown). I suppose you could say it imparted a work ethic to me. Eastern Washington is all farmers and orchard workers and mechanics and factory workers, for the most part. Hard work to get the money, like it or not. Luckily, I like what I do, but it's still work, and it keeps me producing fairly regularly.

I think, more than anything, I just wanted to be as self-sufficient at publishing as possible. I learned to format and proofread and all of that just so that I could know how. They seemed like valuable skills. As I went on, I started writing books that weren't as safe as most publishers would necessarily want to take a risk on from a green author. On top of that, the house I was writing for only did young adult and new adult, and I was moving past those audiences to fiction for adults. And the fact that I write shorter than is normally considered desirable. A lot of things had to conspire for me to go indie, and I still don't want to go full in, one way or another. Traditional, indie, small press - I want to do it all.

My desk isn't really a desk at all. I'm either working in my recliner, at which point I've got a table on either side, scattered with reference books and notebooks and coffee mugs, or I'm writing in my bedroom, at which point I've got... well, a table scattered with reference books and notebooks and coffee mugs.

Normally, I read within my own genres, so science fiction and fantasy, for the most part. I haven't done so recently, but I used to reread the entire Harry Potter series once a year. When I want to be read something that feels particularly artistic, I'll either open up my collection of Edgar Allan Poe, or Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus. And if I just need something light and fun, it's normally The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem. Really, it all just depends on my mood, however I'd say you absolutely can't go wrong with Christopher Moore, no matter how you're feeling.