Snippets About Me
My Muse.
Her name is Violet, and she likes to spend time in Cincinnati. It took me a year or two to learn to call her when I wanted her, but she's been very generous over the years.
How I write.
I wrote with a fountain pen in a journal for my first two (attempts at) novels. Then I transcribed from paper to pixels with my MacBook, editing as I did. Eventually I skipped the paper stage, writing on the laptop. I still use a Mac, but I've been writing also on my iPad. The keyboard isn't as nice, but it's very portable.
Where I write.
Starbucks, mostly. Barnes & Noble sometimes. In good weather, always outside. I need nondescript background noise. And coffee. I can milk a Grande dark roast for up to four hours.
My favorite novel.
I don't know. I haven't given it much thought. And there's always something new on my Paper White. My reading is as eclectic as the music on my phone/laptop. I read science fiction (I can reread Heinlein often, love Jack McDevitt, fascinated by Harlan Ellison, encouraged by Martha Wells, Connie Willis, and Becky Chambers), thrillers (Preston/Child, Rollins), and mysteries sometimes (cozies, mostly, anything by Tony or Anne Hillerman, all the Spenser novels by Robert Parker and his sucessors, and C.J. Box and Betty Webb occasionally. I've never read a baking, cat, or crossword puzzle mystery, though.) Jasper Fforde would have to be high on my (non-existent) list of great storytelling.
My least favorite author.
Well, that's a highly unfair question. Trust me, I'm sure every one of them worked very, very hard on their fiction. Every author, alive or dead, should be given their proper due. Even, maybe, Herman Melville.
My favorite color.
Blue. Like my eyes. Why do you ask?
Worst writing advice I've ever followed.
Write what you know. Seriously? I have no idea what it's like to be dead, nor to be thrown into orbit or fight aliens. That's what I have a muse for. J.K. Rowling would probably tell you the same thing.
Will I never learn?
Apparently not.
My favorite pizza.
Sausage, pepperoni, and banana peppers. Preferably Donato's.
Marvel or DC?
Marvel. Iron Man. I used to be obsessed with Spiderman, but I nearly lost my entire faith in comics when Marvel "killed" M.J. and then "killed" Aunt May (again). The final straw, though, was when they reset the Universe and M.J. forgot that she was ever married to Peter. I mean, how cruel can you be?
My favorite movie/TV show.
J.J. Abrams is pretty cool, but, really, how do you top "Buffy" and "Firefly?" Right? You don't. (No need to dive into the Joss Whedon controversy.) On the other hand, I’m one of a few thousand Kickstarter backers of the Veronica Mars movie. Go figure.
My favorite time.
1954 was pretty good. Summer in the family hunting shack turned into a cabin, deep in the National forest near Kane, PA. Watching a meteor shower early in the morning. Midnight. Christmas morning. May 3, 1985 (when my son was born). The day I begin a new writing project.
