Necessity. I'd much rather be dreaming than be awake.

If I'm not writing, then I'm thinking about writing, or I'm editing another author's book, or recording an audiobook. In the rare time that I'm not doing something book related, then I might be riding my motorcycle, playing guitar, playing with my dogs, or hanging out with my teenage kids.

Often I find books from someone friending me on Goodreads or following me on Twitter. When other authors connect to me, I take a look at what they've written. If it looks interesting or is in a genre I like, I'll read the sample. Some books I buy just based on the title or description, but unfortunately, I often regret that. As much as I hate to say it, a lot of indie authors aren't ready for prime-time. I also buy things that Amazon shows me with their "People who bought this, also bought..."

Yes. I was 11 years old. It was about a young boy who was walking home from school and had decided to kill himself. He was walking to the train trestle where he was going to sit on the tracks until a train came along and finished him. He thought all along the way about his life and his possible future. By the time he reached the trestle, he decided that he wanted to live. He could foresee a good life for himself despite how shitty it was so far at the age of 12. Then the train comes. He goes to the side of the trestle and hangs from his fingertips as the train passes. The noise, vibration, and fear cause him to urinate. The urine runs down one leg and over his shoe, causing him to lose the toe-hold that was helping to support his weight. He loses his grip when his foot slips and falls to his death.

I usually have an image in mind, but I can't always get it created. I'll ask my daughter if she can do what I envision, then I usually go with whatever she comes up, even it's completely different.

My favorite books are the ones that really took me away, and were so real, they've stuck with me. Or ones that really made me think about life, people, society, etc. I don't have a clear, ready list, but off the top of my head, I would say:

Stranger in a Strange Land
1984
Catcher in the Rye
Brave New World
Jonathon Livingston Seagul

I read a lot of horror when I was young, then moved on to science fiction. The last few years, my favorite genres have been post-apocalypse and dystopias.

Kindle.

I think nothing is more effective than someone telling someone else that they just have to read a certain book. I've not had any success at all in deliberate marketing. I never marketed In The End, and I sold over a thousand copies in less than six months. I tried multiple forms of marketing for Reaching Kendra (which I've been told repeatedly is my best writing) and I can barely give it away.

It's big and wide. Made of wood. Drawers on both sides, and has those slide out shelf-like things. My desktop computer is on the left. A laser printer is on the right. Monitor and speakers in the middle. Junk everywhere else. :)

I started writing when I was about seven. I imagine I followed a path similar to many writers. I wrote short stories as a pre-teen, then wrote a lot of poetry in my teens. I was also in a garage band and wrote songs. I continued writing short stories through the years but didn't start my first novel until I was in my late 20s. The funny thing is, I'm still working on that novel.

I'm actually working on three novels, and an auto-biography.

Return of the Gods is the long version of When Everything Changed that I've had multiple requests for.

In The End 2: An American Apocalypse is a sequel to In The End, obviously.

Equal Signs is a not-too-distant future dystopian after America has experienced a civil war and a bio-chemical world war three.

Ascended Bastard is an autobiography of my ridiculous life, which other people are so fascinated with, they always tell me I should write about it, but to me, it just feels like a long, drawn out comic tragedy.

From the beginning, when I first started writing Equal Signs a LONG time ago, I never intended to submit the manuscript to publishers - if I ever completed it. In the 1990s, before Amazon, there was an author who published his book on a website and he called it a shareware novel. He said if you downloaded it, read it, and liked it, you could send him five bucks. I decided I'd do that, rather than send my manuscript out and hope to win the publishing lottery. I've always believed that something good that entertains people stands a chance - if people see it. But imposing a gatekeeper who gets to decide if it's good enough, when that gatekeeper may not be in the mood to read when he looks at your manuscript, may not give it a real chance, might be having a bad day, maybe his wife just cheated on him - a million things could cause this person to pick your manuscript out of the slush pile and toss it in the garbage after a glance. Why let your entire fate as an artist be subjected to such whims?

To that editor, your book may have been a few seconds of his life that he wasn't even paying attention to. But to the author who receives that rejection letter, it's another crushing blow; more cause for self-doubt; another invalidation of his or her skill and talent. It seems like a pretty fucked up system.

By the way, that author who self-published on the web - he ended up selling so many books, he eventually got picked up by a big publisher. lol