I'm old-fashioned. I have a kindle app on my phone, but I much prefer books, the smell of paper and ink and dust brings my mind to my favorite place on earth: the library.

I'm not one to read just one type of book. Sometimes a good story is all I want. Other times, I want to learn how to be a better parent or how to milk a goat. I love reading cookbooks, novels with a poetic flair, and self-help books - A strange combination, to be certain, until I can manage turning a poorly made dinner into a theatrical presentation complete with positivity and laughter. See? A win-win-win!

I'm really an introvert pretending to be an extrovert. The fact that I have four children whom I homeschool and must, therefore, be talkative and positive much of the day can wear me out. Writing is the salve for my patience. The quiet and solitude I need to write rehabilitates my soul. When I started writing, I believed (erroneously) that I could create situations in stories that I could control and make a point through a plot that would teach a lesson. I was the first victim to that lesson! My characters have become quite stubborn and unruly and rarely do what I expect them to do. But I look at it as just more practice in being a good friend, neighbor, mother and wife. That is the joy in writing; no matter what, the story of our lives or the story in our minds isn't really ours. We are simply called upon to do the best with what we have. Writing allows me to explore my life through characters.

Anyone who takes the time to read a book by an author they have never encountered before is a courageous person. To invest time and money into any activity says a great deal about the reader and the author. My fans the reason I write. I pray that my stories inspire them as much as my readers inspire me.

I have three books that are complete and being edited. I hope to release them over the next 18-24 months. The third book of The Elemental Chronicles is in constant creation. I hope to have that ready for a team of test readers before October 1, 2016.

Too many to list, but my top five are:
1. C.S. Lewis. Not only was he a master storyteller, but a philosophical genius. Each time I read any of his non-fiction books, I learn something new.
2. Alexander Dumas. It was The Count of Monte Cristo that stole my heart in high school.
3. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Who doesn't love Sherlock Holmes?
4. Madeleine L'Engle. The complexity of her novels and the family-oriented characters are classic.
5. Sharon Creech, Kate DiCamillo and Kathi Apelt are both excellent writers whom I admire greatly. Their sense of story is rich and poetic.

The alarm clock never inspires me to get out of bed. Never. Sometimes it's the dog who is inspired to go outside instead on the carpet. Mostly, it's the quiet of the house, a hot cup of coffee, and a new story - that I'm writing or reading - that launches me from the warm bed. In my living room, I have white Christmas lights hanging around the front picture window year round. It's the perfect lighting for early morning writing and reading.

My husband and I, along with our four children live on a small farm. I love to garden, working outside in the dirt and among the green as much as I possibly can. We also have chickens (99 at the moment), goats, and will have cows this summer. Farming is not for the weak-hearted. Just this morning, my daughter lost one of her chickens. There are callouses and sweat and all kinds of weather to work in and around. Why do we do it? For food. I love to eat the best food possible. Instead of buying it, we grow it, harvest it, gather it, and milk it.

I do! I was in the sixth grade. My teacher assigned two stories written every week, one due on Tuesday and one on Thursday. That was the extent of her writing curriculum. We never had any instruction, just due dates. I wrote a story about a ballerina that my teacher read in front of the class. It was ridiculous, but it made the class laugh (it was a comedy) and I loved the recognition. The author-bug bit me badly that day.

This question always makes me smile. I don't have a specific and organized manner in which I write. With my life and the busy-ness of homeschooling and farming, my best process is it make time to write and then use that time wisely. Because my time with my pen and paper is so limited, I do have to have the story well planned out first. Those are the times I am the most productive. However, every week is different and I sometimes am not prepared to write a particular scene. That's when I play around with the characters, putting them in different genres and seeing that their personalities might do. I rarely use those stories in the bigger novel, but it is very entertaining for me.

There were always books in the house, but I don't remember spending much time with them. Not until my 7th grade year did reading become a favorite pass time. For Christmas I was given a copy of Michael Ende's The Never Ending Story. I read it in three days. I couldn't put it down and spent those three days in my room enjoying every page, loving how much I was like Sebastian and feeling that I was truly on that adventure with him. I didn't think about writing until much later, but I still remember how I felt during that story. I still have that copy. Now, it's yellow and fragile, but as readable as ever.