I enjoy reading series, the longer the better. Off the top of my head, I love Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time," Taylor Anderson's "Destroyermen," John Ringo's "Black Tide Rising" (among others of his), and Piers Anthony's Xanth series, just to name a few.

I also enjoy singular novels like Stephen King's "IT," Neal Stephenson's "Reamde," Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End," and Ernest Cline's "Ready Player One."

Funny question, but okay.

It's brown and made of wood, with seven drawers.

I think it was late 2009. I was caring for my mother who had had a stroke four years earlier, and I had an idea for a short story about a boy and his father building a working model of a flying saucer for his school science fair. It was terrible and will never see the light of day.

I think I've gotten a little better since then.

Actually, yes. It was in second grade (I think; it was a long time ago), and it was titled "The Old Sea Chest." It won a blue ribbon for some competition or other in the school. I still have it around someplace.

It depends. Sometimes, I get inspired, and then I have to sit down and bang it out almost nonstop.

Other times, I get a kernel of an idea, and in those cases, I'm more methodical. I write some notes and try to flesh out the idea into something workable.

Once the rough draft is done, then it's a matter of reading through it again and again, revising as I go. Lather, rinse, repeat until it's clean and polished.