I have to admit that I am a little all over the place with the authors I enjoy. I love Stephen King, Barbara Kingsolver, and have recently discovered Louis de Bernières. I also adore Leo Tolstoy, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Joseph Conrad. It definitely depends on my mood!

Life. I know, it seems like a corny, cheesy response, but it's true. Knowing that I've been given one more day to breathe in the air, spend time with my family, do the things I love to do... it's a gift and one I'm grateful to have for as long as possible.

Reading. Quite literally, if I'm not at my keyboard typing, or in my notebook jotting, I am reading either online or the books that I pull out of the library. If I'm not reading, I'm generally watching movies or shows with an ear to the script and the writing work someone else has done.

Word of mouth is frankly the most powerful thing I've found. I'll see something in an article or in a comment or even have a friend bring up a good book and I'll run off to check it out.

I do! Though I don't remember the title, I was in first grade. It was a story of a hamster that ate Exlax and grew invisible. He then freed all the pets in the pet shop. Why he didn't get diarrhea I don't know, but I remember how everyone was able to get out the front door of the store and when the shop keep showed up, no pets were in the store. I had the copy for many years after but lost it eventually... a tragedy!

I begin with an idea that grabs me by the ears and yanks my head in its direction. If it's not on fire for me, I generally don't do much other than jot down the idea. After that, it's all about the outline. I make my road map, then start on my journey. A lot of times my outline shifts as the story evolves - I never force an outline. If a story wants to go in a different direction, I'm helpless but to follow.

To be honest, I read so much I don't remember the first tale. I could read at 4, and I read anything and everything. I remember reading Black Beauty when I was about 8, though. I would curl up in my bean bag and read in my warm corner and it lifted my imagination into the great beyond... tears and the works.

All the time I spent over the years goofing around editing drawings and photos actually came back to help me! I know what makes me pick up a book and what things look so amateur I won't bother - I generally look at my composition and ask myself if I'd pick it up. If I can't say I would, then I come up with something different.

"War and Peace" is my number one favorite. I know, people make jokes about it all the time, but it is so deep and rich with characters and their world it sucks me in every time. I've read it three times and plan to pick it up again soon.
"The Talisman" by Stephen King and Peter Straub is such a wonderful flight into the fantastic. I can't count how many times I've read it but it moves me to really imagine. The characters are great, the setting is awesome... you can't beat it.

I tend to reach for literary fiction for pleasure. "The Orphan Master's Son," "Love in the time of Cholera," "American Rust," I enjoy books that leave room for me to really be expansive in my own thoughts. When something isn't completely spelled out for me and makes me question life, I love it all the more.

I use my Samsung Galaxy 10.1 Tablet for all of that.