I started writing when I was 12 years old. I realized one day that the magical stories I read about where created by real people and that I could become one of those creators myself.

I've always been fascinated by the psychology of dominance and submission because we see little power struggles play out every day, in every social situation. I wanted to create a world where the power struggles were always visible, instead of hidden behind the nuances of politeness.

I really like the freedom that self-publishing offers. Being able to set my own price for my books allows me to make my works accessible to everyone--coming from a relatively poor background, I know that sometimes $5 can seem incredibly out of reach.

I'd say the best thing that Smashwords has done is allow me to distribute my work more widely than might have been possible through a traditional publisher.

The adventure of it. Sitting down and seeing where the characters are going to take the story makes writing a very dynamic experience and, while there are frustrating moments, there are never any boring ones.

In a way, they mean everything, because they are the ones who end up reading the stories I write. If I can write something that touches someone's life, even in a very small way--even if it's just by creating a moment where they can simply forget about their life--then I have done everything I have wanted to do with my writing.

I am working on a young adult novel that, if it were an adult novel, would fall into the psychological thriller category.

I read a very large selection of authors, from Mercedes Lackey to Dean Koontz to Chuck Palanhuik. Aside from them, some of my favorites include Patrick Rothfuss, Robin Cook, Brandon Sanderson, Brent Weeks, Stephen King, and Sherrilyn Kenyon.

Knowing that I still have worlds to explore--both in my writing and in my own personal life--is what keeps me motivated on a day-to-day basis. Everything around us can be condensed into stories and it is finding the stories held by the most innocuous of items that keeps life from ever being dull.

I spend a lot of time reading. Stephen King said once that if you don't have the time to read, then you don't have the tools to write, and I agree with that sentiment. I read at least four books a month, if not more, because I find it vital to my writing to read avidly. When I'm not writing or reading, I watch tv shows and anime, but, in a way, that is another form of research for me, because I am always examining stories for their plot developments and character depths. In one way or another, everything I do affects my writing.

I search for ebooks via Smashwords or Amazon in the genres that I am partial to, for the most part. Sometimes I get asked to review an ebook from another author and will wind up with a free copy of that book. And sometimes some of my favorite authors will announce they are releasing an ebook and I will purchase it as soon as it is available.

I do. I wrote it when I was in 4th grade. It was about a girl who found a magic ring that made her invisible and I vaguely remember that caves were involved somehow. That's all I can recall.

It's a little unusual, because I don't use outlines. I will sit down and write out a list of story ideas, with just a few key words, that are unique to my own thinking. If someone else were to get a hold of the list, they would come up with very different stories than the ones that pop into my head. After I write that list, I pick the one that intrigues me the most and I spend a couple weeks letting it percolate in my head. Usually I flesh out the main two characters mentally and then I sit down and start writing, letting those characters guide the action. Because I write like this, without an outline, revision takes a long time, as I generally have to cut pages of text that don't suit the story.

I don't remember the first story I ever read, but I do remember the first book I ever read that made me cry. And when that happened, I realized that books could have a profound impact on the lives of the people who read them. I think that is the moment that I really decided that I wanted to make the commitment to becoming an author. That book, by the way, was Brightly Burning, by Mercedes Lackey.

I try not to use silhouettes of people, because I feel that characters should become a mental picture in the reader's mind. A lot of times, I won't even add physical description for a character, because I feel that a character's personality is more important and everyone gets a different picture of a character, anyway, whether there is a physical description in the story or not. So when I go to design a cover, I try to create something that suits the overall atmosphere of the story, rather than something that is specific to the story itself.