Socrates, Elvis Costello, and my late father. The first for wisdom, the second for musical genius, and the third because he was and still is my best friend, and I have a lot to talk to him about since he passed on.
Obviously, eBooks and eReaders are convenient, and with more and more people declining to do any substantial reading, eBooks and eReaders may be helping to slow that trend. But conscious as I am about the environment and climate change (see "The Dying Party"), eBooks save trees. One thing that is hardly ever mentioned in the literary world is that a small forest has to be sacrificed for every print book published. For this reason, I have decided to sell all my books in eBook form only.
If I could do it all over again, I would never give a thought to getting a "real" job/career, and from the very beginning I would work on my writing, music, and visual art. I am an artist through and through, and I should never have been doing anything else.
I rarely experience writer's block, but it is not a problem for long when I do. I simply start writing freely about writer's block; how it feels, the frustration, how good it feels when it breaks, etc., and pretty soon I find I'm not blocked at all anymore.
Literary success looks like a happy, fulfilled reader to me. Bestseller status and making a lot of money from my writing may be a happy consequence of my writing, but for me it's all about the giving the reader an entertaining, informative, and thought-provoking book to read.
I started writing soon after I learned to read. I've always been interested in life and all that it offers, and as an artist in a variety of genres, creative expression is a need. Put my interests together with my desire and ability to express myself, and I have no choice in the matter - I must write. Nothing excites me more than expressing something in the best possible way.
