Firstly, while the free e-sample gives a title, it's only a working one right now. Without giving too much away, I'll say that 1920s-styled gangsters, epic space battles and some downright Lovecraftian stuff is ahead--all still comic and, in fact, often downright silly.

I created the Floyd Pinkerton character around 25 years ago, for a short story then intended as a one-off. But the members of a writers' group I founded and ran at the time all LOVED him--so much so, they created their own Floyd "fan fiction"! For various reasons, I gravitated away from novels (don't want to rehash my Author Bio here)... In any event, getting back to the endeavor and seeking a novel topic/theme/etc., Floyd immediately came to mind. Humor's become my Main Thing over time, been diggin' sci-fi a lot lately--and also feel our turn-of-the-century obsessions with wellness, morality, etc. is priming the way for a backlash... Enter cigar smokin', hard drinkin' space putz Floyd Pinkerton!

Yes...edited, tweaked, bell-and-whistled. Whenever I work with something written back in my rookie days, tossing it out is always a feasible option. And as a short story, it also required some jiggering to lead into a novel. But the way it set up the characters' chemistry--Floyd and his "frenemy" Bob Tripeman--worked swimmingly. Again, it was a huge fave among writer peers and it's usually best to follow what works. Most importantly, re-reading after so much time, it still had me laughing aloud. And I'm the type who usually only smirks at things I find brilliantly hilarious. Not to mention, it's even harder for me to make MYSELF laugh.

While, on one hand, I appreciate the self-empowering nature of indie publishing, to be completely honest, circumstances drove me to it. I tried the traditional agent route first--I have a long, traditional writing resume. But "writer" is my lifelong identity and this shook out as the only way to publish my books...so I’m now ”indie.”

I do receive joy in immersing myself in other worlds, escaping and such. But I feel I mostly write because I am COMPELLED to. The Internet's murder of journalism (and my print career), along with a rough hand dealt by the Great Recession, put me in quite a funk for a few years. For a while, I very near ditched the idea of a writing career as a valid goal. It was amazing how much my attitude, mood, outlook--whole life--improved simply by returning to novels and fiction again.

Curiously, it can be a trick for readers to understand HOW some of my greatest influences play out in my own work. Edgar Allan Poe is one prime example as perhaps my single greatest writing hero. (My poetry takes much from his rhyme schemes, meter, etc., though I don't write on dark, depressing or horrifying themes.) My humorous influences aren't all writers. There's Mark Twain, but also Laurel and Hardy, George Carlin, Bob Newhart... Kurt Vonnegut is probably closest to what I'm actually shooting for in writing sci-fi now.

I'm the type who punches a time card, so to speak--I write every day and when writing needs to be done, I do it. It has been a long time since I had such severe Writers' Block that I didn't know what to write, but in those cases I wrote about how I couldn't write. I avoid Block by having multiple projects (if stuck with one, can shift to another), keeping notes on things to kick around in my head as I go about my day (chapter titles for instance--so I don't just sit thinking on such things)... I'm also usually big on outlining plot, etc., ahead of time, although for this novel, I dove in. (Then started rigorously outlining about half-way, as I had to write synopsis, query letter, etc. to pitch literary agents, since at least the skeleton of the whole story is necessary for those things.)

I read for pure pleasure less often than I’d like, although I do enjoy reading in any event. I keep up on the news, including local arts coverage in indie pubs. I read a lot about science, especially astronomy and related fields, to write science fiction. So I have a regular reading routine, daily and weekly--when finished with that, it's pleasure reading. I alternate between classics and new works. Currently on a huge compilation of Robert Louis Stevenson short stories, with a couple indie, sci-fi authors who’ve done well in the cooker (in a way, not 100 percent “pleasure”--research). Naturally, I love science fiction, fantasy, etc. and humor, but I try to read most EVERY type of books/stories/etc., which I find helpful since I try to write "beyond genre." I've even went out of my way to read romance, Western and other genres I'm not generally compelled to pick up. Well written is well written. I hope readers who don't always go for scifi or humor will read me--remaining open minded in their choices, as I try to be.

I e-read on my iPad, but I'm still doing most of my reading via physical books and newspapers. Slowly moving my reading into the Modern Age, although for practical convenience, the old book works just fine.

Well... I'm working on it. I'm learning as I go about utilizing selfie media and such. Seems to me that Twitter has so far been more helpful than Facebook, but I’ve started a Goodreads account and plan to publish a review there real soon and look into Goodreads more in general--all about writing and reading, so seems perhaps the best outlet among those kinds of things. In the end, I think great writing is perhaps the greatest "technique" for marketing said writing.

Fans are everything. Without readers, there's no communication and thus no art.

I do some writing on the go--on the bus/train, outdoors in various Chicago locations when it’s warm. So my "desk" can be wherever I am. Even in those cases, I usually set out my attaché case as a desk of sorts, have a water or iced tea at the ready, get a desk-like environment working... At home, though, where I do the vast majority of my writing, I find it helpful to have a Work HQ--actual desk I do indeed sit at, even if I don't really have to, with wifi and such. This has the typicals like printer, a holder for pens and such, tape dispenser, etc., but also knickknacks--an Edgar Allan Poe action figure, a monkey carved from a coconut shell I bought as a child visiting Hawaii, an old 1950s-style mini-robot, a page-a-day "Word Origin" calendar as well as an astronomy-themed wall calendar... Guess this all sets the mood and immerses me in...well, who I am.

The next novel in “The Cosmic Misadventures of Floyd Pinkerton” (CMFP) series, of course. That’ll be my answer for the foreseeable future.

I honestly look forward to writing and sometimes beat the alarm clock to get going! On days that won’t shake out with much writing, I look forward to simple things--what’s for dinner, reading/watching TV or a movie to end the day... Not that my life’s ALL writing. I’m not a huge social animal, but do look forward to hanging out with friends, attending art gallery openings, etc. on days where that’s on my schedule.

Not sure of The Actual First, but loved reading as a child. I remember the psychological dilemma in Poe's "The Black Cat" as really what spurred the writer in me. Late grade school or early junior high, it let me realize that writing could be more than just telling an escapist story--it can spur thought and perhaps even change the world. Mark Twain's stuff reinforced that idea, too, read around the same time.

No. But I do remember writing extra credit fiction in grade school. They'd give you a paragraph or two and have you make a story from it. I recall one about a giant elevator that went far into the sky, but don't recall what I did with it. I wrote "radio plays" around then, too, including a murder mystery "Who Killed Mr. Hammond?" I recorded these with neighborhood kids as actors. Still have that recording on cassette. Not bad, all considered, but now can't imagine how anybody'd Guess The Killer, as was the intention.

I'm a homebody and love hanging and watching TV, fireplace going in cold months, kinda part watching, part reading, part working (thinking on story ideas, title names, etc.)... As far as pure relaxation, I like cooking, trying new restaurants, theater and art.

I grew up in the Chicago area. Far Northwest Suburbs of Crystal Lake, then Ringwood Illinois, McHenry County. Sorta country, sorta suburban. Maybe someday professors will figure this one out, but I don't feel that influenced my writing nearly as much as my life's experiences and reading.