Please introduce yourself and tell us about your background as a writer.
I'm a high school dropout, pushing 60, spent my whole life working with my hands. I like stories and I like poems, and I enjoy making them. Some folks seem to enjoy reading them.

What are the most prominent influences on your writing? How do you incorporate those influences without being derivative?
Tim Powers, Samuel Delany, Roger Zelazny, Ursula Le Guin, Ray Bradbury, Frederick Brown, George Alec Effinger, Philip Dick and Robert Scheckly come to mind. I don't know that I consciously emulate anyone or anything, but I often can see where I got some concept or scene when I reread my work.

Many authors say marketing is one of their biggest challenges. What tactics have you found to be most effective for getting your name out there?
I don't self-publish, so there's less pressure to do that. I use Twitter to network with other writers a lot, and I've picked up readers that way. But mostly I try to promote the publishers who print my stuff and let them sell the books.

How much do your audience’s expectations factor in to what you write? Does this ever cause you to hold back from experimenting?
I have no idea what readers expect. I know what I like, so that's what I write. Someone reading one of my stories with a particular idea of how the story will go is likely to be disappointed--or perhaps pleasantly surprised. Every story I write is, in some way, an experiment. Or else, why bother?

Have you had any new stories published recently? Are you currently working on any?
My latest project is An Atlas Of Bad Roads, a Horror collection from Cirsova Press. I also have a short story in the latest issue of Cirsova Magazine. Currently I am working on a story featuring my Fantasy Detective character, Erik Rugar.

Name one newer and one older book you have read and enjoyed recently. (“Newer” meaning from the past year or so, and “older” meaning written before 1980.)
Recently I read (listened to--I only read audiobooks for pleasure these days) Relics by Tim Lebbon. It's the most recent book I've read in years. Currently I am revisiting an old favorite, Ursula Le Guin's The Left Hand Of Darkness.

Any final words?
I think publishing from about the mid-1980s to the turn of the Century got very timid, being dominated by mega-corporations that were risk averse. Writers, as a class, we beaten down and driven out of the business if they didn't toe a particular party line and write inoffensive and, frankly, dull books. The stranglehold of Trad Pub has been broken economically, but the attitude remains. I'm trying to change that.

Bring back dangerous stories!