Well, in Ariel's Tear, I told a story set in the Gath mountains, an important location throughout the history of Rehavan as later works will demonstrate. And in that story, we caught a glimpse of the underground city of El-Khanna. Now, the city was in ruins in Ariel's Tear, and its creators, the minotaurs, only a legend to the people of Rehavan. In my next project, I want to take my readers back to the time when El-Khanna was first constructed, when the minotaurs were still a robust and powerful race. I feel like explaining the origins of El-Khanna will do a great deal to fill in the backstory of Ariel's Tear as well as to flesh out the overall timeline of Rehavan.

That's a tough one. I go back and forth a lot. But when it comes down to it, I think I can identify four. For sheer skill and beauty in wordcraft, I have to go with Shakespeare. Hamlet has a depth and brilliance seldom rivaled in literature. For enjoyment and imagination, I would say Ray Bradbury. While works like Dandelion Wine demonstrate that Bradbury was quite the wordsmith himself, I always relish the boyish imagination that drives his fantasy and science fiction. He was a true master of the speculative craft. For intellect and didactic infusion in his writing, I enjoy Dostoevsky. His characters in The Brothers Karamazov have better fleshed-out philosophies unique to each of them than most writers could ever create for even one central protagonist. And finally, for mirroring my own view of the world, for value and insight, I turn to C.S. Lewis. I will never stop learning from his works of theology and philosophy no matter how many times I go back and reread them.

Yes. It was a monstrously long and rambling novel actually. I was a bit of an ambitious child, and when I was twelve I decided that I would write a science fiction novel about the discovery of life hidden on Pluto. One hundred and fifty thousand words and four years later the earth had been destroyed, humanity was living as outcasts among the stars, and I had figured out that I really did enjoy writing . . . also that I should probably take some classes because that novel really did have some serious issues.

No, not the first story. I started reading abridged classics for children at a rather young age. It was probably one of those. I do remember the most impactful story I ever read though. It was "The Exiles" by Ray Bradbury, a flight of fancy in which all the spirits of the world's greatest authors were kept alive on Mars because their readers still gave them life. The story sounds horribly strange and outlandish. But the idea that drove it, the notion that authors gained a sliver of immortality as their thoughts lived on in their readers, well, that idea has stuck with me ever since.

Well, I am blessed to know a rather fine graphic artist who also loves to read. So, I give him the draft of my work, he reads it, and we break down the possible settings to use for the cover. From there on, I okay his sketches and his works in progress, and he works his artistic wizardry.

In no particular order:

"The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This work is just saturated in beauty. Every sentence reads like a line of art, delectable, stunning, and grand. Fitzgerald infuses his characters with such vibrancy, passion, and mystique that it is difficult not to remember bits of the work as if you were there yourself and to recall fondly Gatsby's eternally understanding smile.

"The Four Loves" by C.S. Lewis. This work taught me a great deal about human nature and has aided in my construction of characters to no end. It has also made me a much better person for having read it.

"The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Perhaps no novel in history has been so enduring while at the same time so misunderstood as "The Scarlet Letter." A delicate and intricate work filled with comments on morality and social justice, "The Scarlet Letter" is a fascinating and beautiful read written to, among many other things, demonstrate the difference between penitence and repentance. This point, however, is constantly buried beneath the work's more obvious satire of Puritanical coldness. Consequently, Hester Prynne, intended as an example of the consequences of unrepented sin, becomes a symbol of strength and solidity beneath unfair punishment.

"Dandelion Wine" by Ray Bradbury. Much like "The Great Gatsby," Bradbury's pseudo-memoir novel is written in passionate, gorgeous prose. Every line is its own essay and window into the wondrous world of youth. However, its beauty, unlike the raw, vigorous glamour of Fitzgerald's work, is the beauty of nostalgia and youthful awe. It gives the reader the chance to truly experience life for a little while through the eyes of a child. And along the way, it shares some of the most beautifully sculpted prose I have ever read.

"The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. A marvelous work filled with brilliance as flippant and contrary as Lord Wotton's philosophies, Wilde's examination of an immortal hedonist is laced with scintillating prose reeling between intentional contradiction and stunning insight into humanity's hypocrisies. A truly fascinating read.

For most of my life I read the Western Classics, the British, American, German, Russian, and occasionally French or Spanish novels and short stories that have held an enduring place in our culture's canon of art.
In more recent years though, I have taken to reading more modern works, mostly speculative fiction from the masters like Asimov, Bradbury, and Tolkien. Also I read a fair amount of contemporary essayists.

It's wood. And it has extra shelves for the books that overflow from my bookshelves. And the extra shelves are overflowing. Just like all the other bookshelves in my room are still overflowing. Speaking of which, I need more shelves.

I grew up and still live in northern Wisconsin. We have lovely summers here, lovely. Last year summer was on a Thursday, right around noon. It lasted for a good half-hour.
I think that the main influence my location has had on my work is in topography and the plant life I include in my work. My fantasy world shares a lot of similarities to Wisconsin in basic flora and fauna and weather. I reference goldenrods and purple loosestrife, pine forests and tag alder. When I need to include times for harvests and for berries to bloom, I base it on what happens each year here in my state. I think that my location and my inclusion of that location in my writing has added some believability to my fantasy writing.

Well, as a child, before I could really write much, I used to take a ruler and make comic strip boxes. And I would draw superhero comics in those boxes with no words, just scenes told in a kind of mime. So, if that counts, I started pretty young. When I was twelve, I started a novel that I still have part of on some hard drive somewhere. I also wrote a number of short stories and poems around then. I really never stopped writing after that. Took some classes in highschool, majored in writing in college. I've just been honing my skills ever since those superhero comics.