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For once, a meme I may take a whack at...
15 years ago
General
1. When did you start writing?
Been coming up with stories for a long time, though I often find I'm more interested in specs and designs that weave into narratives.
2. First drafts: Handwritten, typed, or some combination?
Typed. Most of the time I can't read my own handwriting, editing stuff is far easier on the 'puter, and I type far faster and with fewer errors.
I once transcribed a 30-second TV commercial at a speed that astonished a coworker.
3. Do you keep any kind of notebook or writer's journal, and if so, what kinds of things go into it?
I've been keeping a journal for a long time as a general journal, including anything from weather conditions and what happened during the course of the day to what I ate and what exercise I got. Not as a writer's journal so much as just a dumping ground for my thoughts.
4. Do you set any quotas for your work (number of words per day, number of hours per day, etc.)? Why or why not?
Nope. Usually I write when I have time between all the other things I'm involved in!
5. Are you most comfortable writing short stories, novels, or something else?
I often start with an outline (and I found that TVTropes.org was a great place to get ideas together!) and see where it goes from there. What started off as a short fanfic ballooned into almost novel length. I try to write short when possible, but that doesn't seem to be possible.
6. What's your favorite kind of story to write?
Something that I can actually finish! See #11 for influences, I rather like technical details if they play nicely into the story.
Particularly if the fact that Chekhov's Gun is a Mosin-Nagant turns out to be an important clue.
7. Talk about a story of yours that was easy to write and one that was difficult to write, and why.
Easy: Remarkably enough, the fanfic I mentioned above. Based on Alex Reynard's "Dangerous Lunatics," I found a superpower idea that had been floating in my mind for some years finally found expression and crystallized in a character. Each time I opened the file I ended up expanding a sentence into a few paragraphs, and sometimes a sentence became a page. I still need to work on a Curb Stomp Battle scene.
Hard: This one so far remains abandoned. I heard Loreena McKennitt's song "The Bonny Swans", a song that retells an old folk tale. I thought it was a nicely written allegory of forensics; I started putting that into a story, and it sort of stalled out. I may post the working notes with the admonishment that it'll probably never be finished. I'm still not sure why I stopped; maybe the characters just stopped speaking to me, it was pretty plot driven. Might work better if I revamp it into a CSI fanfic.
8. Which of your characters is closest to your sense of self? In other words, who do you most identify with in your own work to date?
Thus far, my recent character Melissa Larson (Again, see the fanfic mention above). I was like that in grade school, way the hell ahead in some respects, way behind in others. The influencing works both ways: after I started writing the story, I found that several elements worked better if she could use a radio; I ended up getting my FCC license after about eight months of really working on the story. Being a Crazy Prepared Genius will take a bit more time...
9. What work are you most proud of right now?
Right now the Dangerous Lunatics Fanfic; it's the most complete thing I've written so far.
10. What do you feel your strengths and weaknesses are as a writer?
Weaknesses... Lack of time. Lack of training. Lack of organization and coherence.
Strengths... I haven't been writing enough to know yet. My literate style, maybe? I know what I like to read, and I try to write that way.
11. Name a few writers who have influenced you or your work in some way.
In no particular order: Alex Reynard; Tom Clancy; all the folks that were involved in the now defunct roleplaying forum MasterZDM.com.
12. Talk about something you've written that you later found embarrassing for some reason.
Very few of my written works have escaped my hard drive, so that's hard to answer. Just about any story I tried to tell prior to the last ten years I might consider an Old Shame.
13. Talk about the earliest stories you remember writing. What were they about?
The earliest one I recall was a Scooby-Doo-ish comic that my mother and I scripted and she drew. A reported ghost turned out to be a man in disguise. The "unmasking" scene showed where the disguised guy got shot in the butt.
14. If you knew you would be successful, what would you most like to write?
Let me flip that around: If I knew I wouldn't have to worry about income, what would I like to write?
Probably fiction of some sort. I like the greater flexibility of furries, since an awful lot still goes.
15. What inspires you?
Concepts. I had the rawest idea for Melissa's powers since about... 2002, I think. I started to use that with my MasterZDM character, but then he turned into a Genius Bruiser and went in a bunch of other directions.
Since about 2000 or so, I've been discovering subcultures, "worlds beneath the world", Groups that come together and form a society of their own. Furries. Geocachers. Ham radio operators. Political action groups. Songwriters. The lists go on.
16. How many projects do you tend to work on at once?
Just written ones, maybe two or three at a time. Everything else I'm into (see #18) brings the project total to a few dozen!
17. Who reads your work before it's released to the public? Do you have beta readers, a critique group, etc.?
Want to join up? I'm still looking for beta readers and critique. So far I've run my major fanfics past
alexreynard and 
alfador, since they were based on their combined work. 
drakiskier has commented as well, hope I can keep him around!
18. When you're not writing, what do you do for fun?
I sing with a choir, fart around with computers, draw, play bass, ham it up on the radio (I mostly use digital modes on the HF bands), and look for geocaches when the weather's nice, crack puns.
I hold down a day job. And cram sleep in there somewhere.
19. Advice to other writers?
You're asking ME? As far as writing goes, I'm still a n00b!
20. What are you currently working on?
Fanfics for two of Alex's settings dominate my written output at the moment. Just today I read back over a couple chapters of Professor Bob's "Kayla" story, and had an idea come belching out that needed to be taken down. I think it's a side story that NEEDS to be written, but may not even fit into the story continuity.
21. Share the first three sentences of a work in progress.
(Skipping a few quotes at the beginning to what I actually wrote...)
Satan's office is an example of what most of Hell has to deal with on a daily basis: Paperwork. Lucifer himself processes a few hundred thousand tons of it every hour, and the legions of Hellguardians who volunteer for desk jobs have similar workloads. Hell's staff tried going paperless more than once, but getting everything implemented just didn't work.
For the kind of permanence needed for Hell's Records, these just can't be created out of thin air or portaled into existence. Copies can be summoned, but someone has to make all those forms for the original files...
Been coming up with stories for a long time, though I often find I'm more interested in specs and designs that weave into narratives.
2. First drafts: Handwritten, typed, or some combination?
Typed. Most of the time I can't read my own handwriting, editing stuff is far easier on the 'puter, and I type far faster and with fewer errors.
I once transcribed a 30-second TV commercial at a speed that astonished a coworker.
3. Do you keep any kind of notebook or writer's journal, and if so, what kinds of things go into it?
I've been keeping a journal for a long time as a general journal, including anything from weather conditions and what happened during the course of the day to what I ate and what exercise I got. Not as a writer's journal so much as just a dumping ground for my thoughts.
4. Do you set any quotas for your work (number of words per day, number of hours per day, etc.)? Why or why not?
Nope. Usually I write when I have time between all the other things I'm involved in!
5. Are you most comfortable writing short stories, novels, or something else?
I often start with an outline (and I found that TVTropes.org was a great place to get ideas together!) and see where it goes from there. What started off as a short fanfic ballooned into almost novel length. I try to write short when possible, but that doesn't seem to be possible.
6. What's your favorite kind of story to write?
Something that I can actually finish! See #11 for influences, I rather like technical details if they play nicely into the story.
Particularly if the fact that Chekhov's Gun is a Mosin-Nagant turns out to be an important clue.
7. Talk about a story of yours that was easy to write and one that was difficult to write, and why.
Easy: Remarkably enough, the fanfic I mentioned above. Based on Alex Reynard's "Dangerous Lunatics," I found a superpower idea that had been floating in my mind for some years finally found expression and crystallized in a character. Each time I opened the file I ended up expanding a sentence into a few paragraphs, and sometimes a sentence became a page. I still need to work on a Curb Stomp Battle scene.
Hard: This one so far remains abandoned. I heard Loreena McKennitt's song "The Bonny Swans", a song that retells an old folk tale. I thought it was a nicely written allegory of forensics; I started putting that into a story, and it sort of stalled out. I may post the working notes with the admonishment that it'll probably never be finished. I'm still not sure why I stopped; maybe the characters just stopped speaking to me, it was pretty plot driven. Might work better if I revamp it into a CSI fanfic.
8. Which of your characters is closest to your sense of self? In other words, who do you most identify with in your own work to date?
Thus far, my recent character Melissa Larson (Again, see the fanfic mention above). I was like that in grade school, way the hell ahead in some respects, way behind in others. The influencing works both ways: after I started writing the story, I found that several elements worked better if she could use a radio; I ended up getting my FCC license after about eight months of really working on the story. Being a Crazy Prepared Genius will take a bit more time...
9. What work are you most proud of right now?
Right now the Dangerous Lunatics Fanfic; it's the most complete thing I've written so far.
10. What do you feel your strengths and weaknesses are as a writer?
Weaknesses... Lack of time. Lack of training. Lack of organization and coherence.
Strengths... I haven't been writing enough to know yet. My literate style, maybe? I know what I like to read, and I try to write that way.
11. Name a few writers who have influenced you or your work in some way.
In no particular order: Alex Reynard; Tom Clancy; all the folks that were involved in the now defunct roleplaying forum MasterZDM.com.
12. Talk about something you've written that you later found embarrassing for some reason.
Very few of my written works have escaped my hard drive, so that's hard to answer. Just about any story I tried to tell prior to the last ten years I might consider an Old Shame.
13. Talk about the earliest stories you remember writing. What were they about?
The earliest one I recall was a Scooby-Doo-ish comic that my mother and I scripted and she drew. A reported ghost turned out to be a man in disguise. The "unmasking" scene showed where the disguised guy got shot in the butt.
14. If you knew you would be successful, what would you most like to write?
Let me flip that around: If I knew I wouldn't have to worry about income, what would I like to write?
Probably fiction of some sort. I like the greater flexibility of furries, since an awful lot still goes.
15. What inspires you?
Concepts. I had the rawest idea for Melissa's powers since about... 2002, I think. I started to use that with my MasterZDM character, but then he turned into a Genius Bruiser and went in a bunch of other directions.
Since about 2000 or so, I've been discovering subcultures, "worlds beneath the world", Groups that come together and form a society of their own. Furries. Geocachers. Ham radio operators. Political action groups. Songwriters. The lists go on.
16. How many projects do you tend to work on at once?
Just written ones, maybe two or three at a time. Everything else I'm into (see #18) brings the project total to a few dozen!
17. Who reads your work before it's released to the public? Do you have beta readers, a critique group, etc.?
Want to join up? I'm still looking for beta readers and critique. So far I've run my major fanfics past
alexreynard and 
alfador, since they were based on their combined work. 
drakiskier has commented as well, hope I can keep him around! 18. When you're not writing, what do you do for fun?
I sing with a choir, fart around with computers, draw, play bass, ham it up on the radio (I mostly use digital modes on the HF bands), and look for geocaches when the weather's nice, crack puns.
I hold down a day job. And cram sleep in there somewhere.
19. Advice to other writers?
You're asking ME? As far as writing goes, I'm still a n00b!
20. What are you currently working on?
Fanfics for two of Alex's settings dominate my written output at the moment. Just today I read back over a couple chapters of Professor Bob's "Kayla" story, and had an idea come belching out that needed to be taken down. I think it's a side story that NEEDS to be written, but may not even fit into the story continuity.
21. Share the first three sentences of a work in progress.
(Skipping a few quotes at the beginning to what I actually wrote...)
Satan's office is an example of what most of Hell has to deal with on a daily basis: Paperwork. Lucifer himself processes a few hundred thousand tons of it every hour, and the legions of Hellguardians who volunteer for desk jobs have similar workloads. Hell's staff tried going paperless more than once, but getting everything implemented just didn't work.
For the kind of permanence needed for Hell's Records, these just can't be created out of thin air or portaled into existence. Copies can be summoned, but someone has to make all those forms for the original files...
