Sometime around fifth grade. I think it was around that same time I began to understand sentence structure and coherent thought in the written language. Previous to that I was confined to Mad Libs.

Ghost hunters. I've been obsessed with horror stories lately. In fact the last novel I finished and the current novella I'm writing both have to do with ghost hunters. Different plots, same themes.

The realization that the old houses of publishing are falling into decay. They've become too slow to evolve and barely have anything to offer.

Before, while I was waiting to be 'discovered' all of my work was hidden away, getting dusty and old. At least now people have access to it and it's getting read. In the end that's what most writers want, to be read and thats a plus in the morale column.

When I finish writing a scene and I know instantly how the reader is going to react to it. It's like the excitement of setting up a good practical joke or knowing you got someone the best present they could want.

Technically I'm working on finalizing the old books I had written, so that I can put them up on here. Specifically right now it's a 4 part Sci-Fi series.

Kurt vonnegut changed my life forever. Then there were a slew of late 90's, early 2000 writers that helped. Chuck Palahniuk and Irvine Welch for example, taught me that having crazy thoughts was helpful as a writer. And Douglas Adams taught me everything is funny if you look at it in the right way.

I suffer from depression, so the real answer is my cat who meows in my ear. But the question behind this question I think is, what drives me. And the answer is a really good scene. I can see it in my head, hear the dialog and feel where it's going. Then I have to write it immediately before it evaporates. Of course this actually keeps me out of bed. I have insomnia too.

I paint too. But the truth is as an indie artist, writer, or whatever you are a business. And a business doesn't stop running. There are always things to do. I do my own layout, (some) editing, cover art. There's blogging and maintaining other webpage sources. I have to keep the bank accounts up to speed.
I don't watch very much TV and when I do I'm exercising. I play video games when I eat.

Yes, absolutely. I might even have it somewhere, because I hand wrote everything and still do to this day. I know for sure I have pristine single page of a story I wrote in 8th grade. But the first thing I wrote was a ghost story. I hardly remember what it was about, except that it was terribly forced.

I consider myself a method writer. For my last novel one of my characters spiraled into a drinking binge, so I drank. A lot. My emotions change, my personality changes, all depending on what's happening in the book.