My first "book" was a fifth grade school project, complete with cardboard cover. I think the end result was about twenty pages long, and within those twenty pages there were dozens of marriages, births, and deaths. The characters didn't do much else.

I'm a very slow writer. I tend to spend weeks, if not months, thinking about a story before I ever begin writing it; it's only when the story is fully formed that I sit down to start typing. Once I've begun, I find I write best early in the morning; if for some reason I'm unable to get started in the morning, my writing is pretty much shot for the day. I also do something we're cautioned not to do: I edit as I go. I'm constantly re-reading and changing things as I go along. Half of my writing time is spent re-writing what I wrote the day before. It may not be the proper procedure, but it works for me.

I don't remember the first one (probably because I don't remember ever not reading or being read to), but I do know that Johanna Spyri's Heidi had a huge impact on me. I must have read it a dozen times, and I was torn between wanting to be Heidi, and wanting to write books like Heidi.

I love a wide range of books and authors, anyone from Barbara Kingsolver to Stephen King to Anna Quindlen to Ann Rule (I'm a true crime buff). I'm looking at my shelves now and I see William Faulkner, Richard Bach, and Wilson Rawls all mixed in with Sue Miller, John Irving, and Jodi Picoult.

My latest book, Entangled Thorns, is the third in a series based in the fictional mining town of Cedar Hollow, West Virginia. The protagonist grew up in a highly dysfunctional moonshining family and is struggling with not only moving past her traumatic childhood, but also with a family secret she's carried for years.

My mother is from West Virginia and we visited my grandparents there nearly every summer. I've always been fascinated with the history and culture of the area, and I love researching and writing about Appalachia.

I didn't start out an indie author; in fact, until recently I was traditionally published through a small press out of Washington. As my writing career has grown and I've become more comfortable with the process, I've felt the urge to assert more control over the proceedings. I enjoy the ability to play around with prices, track sales in real time, and conduct giveaways, all things I couldn't previously do.

When I was traditionally published I had very little say in the design of my covers, so when I decided to self-publish I did quite a bit of research on cover design and determined I needed professional help to get the look and feel I wanted. I wish I were artistically talented enough to attempt to design my own covers, but unfortunately the image I have in my head never looks the same on paper; it's best for me to rely on someone else's talents for that.

My answer to this question may be slightly controversial, but I really prefer paid advertising, as long as it's well within my budget. I do blog, Facebook, and Tweet, but I'm not comfortable spamming people and places with my books. I'm also a fairly private person, so although I enjoy reading posts in book discussion threads, it's rare for me to join in the discussion. I suppose I look at it as I would with any business: When I owned a psychotherapy practice some years ago, I didn't walk into the shops and restaurants along the street and ask people to come and see me; I maintained an advertising budget that depended on what I could reasonably expect to make during a given time period, then paid for ads in local papers and yellow pages.

Smashwords gives me the ability to sell through various outlets and distributors I wouldn't be able to reach on my own. In addition, I love the coupon codes I can generate through Smashwords. I've used these numerous times, both when sending books out for review and when building interest and marketing my books through giveaways.

It's a very frail antique oak that lists slightly to the right. Aside from the expected computer/printer, it's also holding a mug of coffee, a jar of pens and pencils, two writing tablets, a handful of paperclips, a wadded up napkin, and a saucer full of toast crumbs.