I've had characters and stories swirling around in my head for years.  I'm no stranger to writing, having had a 30+ year career in radio, television, and public education creating commercial copy, press releases, and countless scripts for news and talk programs. Regardless of the type of writing I am always researching, exploring, and conceptualizing.

I think like many who write, I'm most inspired by other writers. With regard to inspirational writers, I'm all over the map. Screenwriters, tv commercial writers, bloggers, radio dramatists, playwrights, cartoonists, novelists (old & new) in some way serve as inspiration.  As a kid growing up my love of Stan Lee's writing for Marvel Comics, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Daniel Defoe's castaway adventure all stirred me in different directions. It was my discovery of pulp fiction of the 1930s & 40s that really stirred me to some of my biggest writing heroes.  Men and women who (unlike me) could draft an idea on Monday, and finish the novel on Saturday. What's more, most of those penny-a-worders banged out stories that were thrilling reads that entertained until the last line.