I scan Smashwords every few days to see what's new. If I see something interesting I buy it. I also check Amazon and sometimes buy books there, but Smashwords is my go to site for books. Barns and Noble is my favorite bookstore.

Smashwords enabled me to publish and distributed my stories to booksellers for me. They took all the work out of distributing and collecting proceeds. I love how easy it is to publish at Smashwords. I've recommended Smashwords to authors I know who are looking for a place to publish and actually set up an account for one author who wasn't sure he could do it on Smashwords. Getting started on Smashwords.com is a cinch.

I don't remember the first story I ever read, it has been a long time since I read my first story, but some of the early ones I read, while in elementary school, were the Tom Swift books. I loved those stories, and when I was in high school, I read most of Earnest Hemingway's books.I also read most of James Mitchner's books when I was in college. All the books I've read have helped shape me but I can't point to any one in particular that had a profound effect on me. My favorite author these days is John Grisham.

I usually find a photo that fits my story line, for example for my story 'TA' I selected a photo of a woman wearing see-through yoga pants like the principal female character in the story. I just add the title and author's name to the photo and upload it. The trick is to find photos that are free or if you can't find a free one that works, go to a site that sells photos for reasonable prices, like Dreamstime where images sell for $4 to $25 each depending on how many you buy.

I started writing stories a long time ago. When I was a teenager I started taking more pains to make the stories readable, and as I grew older I gradually began to be more serious about my writing, but I was still writing for my own pleasure. It wasn't until I retired that I began to spend a lot of time writing. I was still writing stories mainly for my own enjoyment, but I began to think about selling stories. I made the leap when I discovered Smashwords.com. I could publish my stories there and possibly make a little money from them. I had a lot of stories that I'd written over the years and I published several. I was pleased when they started selling.I soon realized that the ones that sold well were the erotic stories so I concentrated on writing erotica.

I have enjoyed writing for a long time, but I didn't think I could ever get anything published, It wasn't until I discovered Smashwords.com that I realized there was a way to publish my writings. It was free and if my stories sold I could make a little money. It was a no-brainer. I opened an account at Smashwords and I'm still selling books there and at retail outlets like Barns and Noble.

I read a lot. I read the newspaper every morning and read articles on line in an effort to keep up with the news. I love crosswords and do at least two most days. I also like jigsaw puzzles, but they take a long time to solve and I often loose pieces before I finish one.

I don't remember. I can't remember when I didn't write, but I don't remember any of what I wrote in the early years. The first one I remember was about a young man flying over the Vermont mountains in a light plane, thinking about a young woman he was interested in at the time that he was on his way to visit. I don't know what happened to that story.

I don't have a desk. I use a laptop which is on a little stand.

Believe it or not it's the crossword puzzle in the newspaper.

I usually write about incidents in my daily life that spark a story line in my head. When I relax story lines flesh themselves out and I make notes. Then when I decide to write the story I read over the notes and the story just writes itself. I let the characters do whatever they want to do, and as long as the words are flowing, I try to stay out of the way. When I edit, I try to get rid of awkward sentence structure and tighten the story line, but I let the characters just live the story as much as I can. If the story stops flowing, I put it aside and go back to it now and then until it starts flowing again.

My Nook. I have a ton of stories on it.

They're my reason for publishing stories. Without readers there is no point in publishing. I enjoy writing, so I'll keep turning out stories, but without readers it'll be just for the fun of it.