Yes. It was a hand-written short story entitled "A Red Christmas" that I wrote in my senior year of high school. It was an awful little story about Santa Claus being shot down over Cold War-era Soviet Russia. It had a small cult following among my friends that were avid fans of Tom Clancy and the like. I intend to rewrite it as a novella later this year.

I think of my story, or even a scene, and just write it, with total disregard for style, grammar or cheesy dialogue. Then I fill in gaps and improve the quality of what I previously brain-dumped. Somewhere along the way, everything ties together, and I send it to my editors.

The Hunt for Red October - This is the book that made me want to write. It was vastly interesting to me as a teenager in the final years of the Cold War.
It - This book terrified me. Aside from the incredible storytelling, I could lay the book on the coffee table, and Pennywise would look at me anywhere I stood in the living room.
Alien - Also terrifying, while also incredibly interesting. I was too afraid to watch the movie as a preteen, but I read the book dozens of times. It would be ten years before I could watch the movie all the way through, even though I knew what was going to happen when.
Animal Farm - Great book about the October revolution of 1917. Soviet/Russian culture has always fascinated me, and this was a interesting insight into the rise of communism.
The Lord of the Rings - Great fantasy read. More epic than I believe I will ever write, but a very good read.

Science fiction and fantasy.

I use an iPad with the Kindle reader app installed. Sometimes my iPhone.

Haha...none, so far. I've done paid ads on Amazon.com, and paid/boosted posts on Facebook. I think that combined between the two efforts, I've spent about 100 times more money than I've made in resulting sales.

The first time I ever wrote something that wasn't assigned to me in school was in my senior year of high school. I wrote heavily for a few years, and sporadically since then.

A lifelong adventurer by necessity--a way to escape the streets after being orphaned as a child--finally acquires a treasure that he is certain will bring a price that will please his future father-in-law. When he returns to civilization, he finds a dragon destroying his fiance's home and her entire family. As an extra kick in the pants, the dragon kills his best friend and adventuring partner as well. He sets out on a quest to find the dragon and exact revenge. Obviously, it doesn't go as planned, and he ends up learning a bit about himself and teaming up with an unlikely companion. That's about all I can say without story-killing spoilers.

I've had these stories, well one anyway, in my head for twenty-five years. I've tried to write it over a dozen times. When it finally all came out this time, I realized that I didn't have the patience to deal with the traditional publishing process. After twenty-five years and a dozen tries, I finally finished it...no way I was going to let the traditional publishing process stop it from seeing print. So I self-pubbed, for better or worse.

Getting the stuff out of my head and finding that other people actually like it.

The second book in the series. The Dragon's Bane ends with the revelation of a greater evil in the world than Rayle's simple quest for revenge--an evil that affects Rayle's newfound friend and companion. Rayle agrees to help her, partially because a person he has known most of his life is behind it.

Stephen King, Tom Clancy, J. R. R. Tolkien, Arthur C. Clarke

My wife and family.

Boating, working on cars, camping, watching American football. Fly Eagles, Fly!