As the author, how would you describe your books?
"The Origin of Deanna Dorak" (paperback & ebook) is about a young woman who discovers that she isn't who she thought she was. Her recently deceased mother had things to tell her that she never go the chance to tell her due to her unexpected death. Deanna learns about the true meaning of friendship while learning who she is. By the end of the story she knows what her mothers (no, it's not a typo, she had more than one mother) expected of her.

"Aneesha's Prophecy" (ebook) is about the continuing growth and education of Deanna Dorak. Or as she is known on her home world, The Dorak or Dorak Deanna. On her home world of Nedamla, Deanna learns the high price paid by others so that she could have the opportunity to satisfy Aneesha's Prophecy. As Dorak of Nedamla, Deanna finds that power and position have their price. Finding a balance between her ancient ancestors whose violence almost caused the destruction of her entire species and her more recent ancestors whose pacificism led her people into slavery, is going to be a difficult act. Almost as difficult as freeing her people and then keeping them free.

"Life Is Full Of Surprises" (ebook) is a story of evil, greed, deception and love. Who killed whom and why, is secondary to the power of love.

Can you tell us the behind-the-scenes story about how "" came into being? What was the germ? How did the characters come to life? Is there a character who still lives inside of you?
After twenty years of trying to write "Aneesha's Prophecy", I realized that the reason I wasn't happy with any of the many versions I had written was because I had not yet written "The Origin of Deanna Dorak". Once "The Origin of Deanna Dorak " was written, "Aneesha's Prophecy" flew out of me like a long-tailed cat fleeing a room full of rocking chairs.

When I get a story idea I don't write an outline. Instead I spend a lot of time thinking about what kind of people I want my characters to be and what role they will play in the story. I think that Deanna Dorak will always live inside of me. While she's not perfect, she has a great many qualities I admire and besides that she can breathe underwater and communicate telepathically. Sounds like great fun to me.

"Life Is Full Of Surprises" grew out of a whim to write a romantic encounter. It started out as just a few hundred words and as will happen, it developed a life of its own.

Can you tell us something about you as a writer, i.e. when you started writing, what's your creative process is like, what inspires you, etc.?
I have been writing for as long as I can remember. I don't think I was particularly serious about it until high school when there was a Creative Writing class offered as an elective in English. I took it and from then on I was hooked. As for what inspires me, that has an many variables in it as there are stars in the sky. It could be a newspaper article or the words to a song. Or it could simply be a stray thought that crossed my mind and got tangled in the cobwebs there. The creative process is difficult to explain but I'll try. Let's say I get an idea for a story from a letter to the editor. I'll take that idea and think about it for quite some time, depending on the complexity of the idea it could be days or months. At the end of this germination period I will know the basic story idea and most of the main characters. In other words I have a hazy idea of what I want the story to be. It's at this point that I sit down and begin to write.

How do you keep a balance between family, work, and your writing?
That's a good question. I've been told that I zone out when the muse is with me. My partner says she can stand in the doorway and stare at me for several minutes, waiting for me to acknowledge her presence. After a while she realizes that I don't know she's there and she presses on or if it's important she'll interrupt me. She told some friends the other day that if we didn't work together she would never get any time with me.

Can you tell us something about you as a person?
I don't like to talk about myself. I write so that I can create heroic characters and imbue them with the qualities I wish I had. I love cats. I can sit for hours and watch their antics. Loyalty and trust mean a great deal to me. I don't interact well with people; at least I don't think I do. I think I come across as gruff and uncaring which is why I let my partner deal with our customers whenever possible. I also find that communicating over the internet is limiting. You don't get to hear the person's tone of voice or see their facial expression. Those two items can change the entire meaning of a phrase or a word.

If you had a chance to be mentored by one author (living or dead), who would you choose and why?
There was a time when I would have said Robert A. Heinlein; however, now it would be a toss up between him and Anne McCaffrey. I think if I had to choose one of them, I would choose McCaffrey. When I read one of her books I can see the story in my mind, like a movie. She paints such wonderful pictures with her words.

Despite the wisdom that says you can't take it with you, if you could take four things with you when you leave this world, what would they be?
A copy of "The Dragonriders of Pern" by McCaffrey; something to write on and with, preferably a computer; a perpetually self-replenishing meal of Charlotte's enchiladas, refried beans and rice, including the ice tea; and my music collection.

What is your view of epublishing? What opportunities does it provide for you and for other authors? What do you think is the future of epublishing?
I think that epublishing is in its infancy. It offers a wonderful opportunity for unknown writers, such as myself. The fact that an epublisher doesn't have to gamble hundreds of thousands of dollars on each publication makes it possible for them to offer unknowns an opportunity to prove themselves. The future of epublishing will depend on so many things that I'm not willig to predict it. Hopefully, it will flourish and grow in popularity. I doubt that in my lifetime it will replace traditional publishing; there are too many people who want to be able to turn the pages of a book instead of reading it off an electronic device.

What other published works do you want us to know about?
I have a short story in Shards and I encourage one and all to purchase a copy. One hundred percent of the proceeds go to the Breast Cancer Fund. So do your part to help find a cure.

What projects are you currently working on?
The book I'm currently working on, "Freedom Abdicated, Freedom Lost(c)", contains politics, religion, adventure and romance. Unless this country changes the direction I see it going, "Freedom Abdicate, Freedom Lost(c)" could easily be a glimpse into our future. I have already completed a couple different drafts of this book; however, I'm not satisfied with it yet. A friend who read the first draft keeps after me to complete the book and get it published. She seems to think it's a book that needs to be out there. I hope when it is published the public agrees with her. Of course I'm also germinating an idea for the next adventure of The Dorak of Nedamla.

I'm working as a Mentor with Writer's Village University.