Tell me about yourself. What got you started in writing?
Two things got me writing in a joyful way: a) word processing on a personal computer and b) getting my own website and having to put stuff on it. The first happened in the late seventies and the second in the mid-nineties. After I started word processing I took up writing magazine articles and white papers for the companies I worked for. I was explaining pioneering technical ideas such as personal computers and local area networking. When I got the web site I widened my writing topics enormously. I added science and science fiction, current events and history, and why we think the way we do. I also widened my styles. I added writing movie scripts to my repertoire.
How do you schedule your writing time? When do you write?
Each day I sit in front of my personal computer and read lots of articles. When I get inspired by something I’m reading I write my own article about it. For more lengthy topics I come and go from them throughout the day.
How and where do you write? Do you prefer a laptop or some other method of getting your words down?
I write on a desktop computer. I will occasionally write on a laptop, but I usually find the environment where I’m using the laptop too distracting.
What's your favorite part about writing? Your least favorite part about writing?
My favorite part is coming up with interesting new insights and then taking on the challenge of how to express them in a way other people will find both understandable and interesting. The least favorite part, these days, is waiting for the new insights to pop up – I’ve written about a lot of things. LoL!
How did you come up with your book idea? How long did it take you to write your book?
I have written fifteen books that are now published. I come with the ideas in many ways and how long they take to write varies from a couple months to a year.
What types of marketing do you do to promote your writing?
I use my website and social media to promote my books. That’s the core. I get out and do a few other things once in a while.
What are you currently working on? Do you have a new book out?
My latest book is “Profit from History” where I talk about the patterns I see in history and how they can be applied to predicting the evolution of current events.
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I’m currently working on adding a book to my Visions of 2050 series. This is future forecasting about our near future, and what it will really be like. I foresee lots of interesting, and surprising, changes coming.
Do you have a project on the back burner? Tell me about it.
Getting the movie scripts that I have written from my stories produced. I’ve written about 70 scripts now, but I haven’t found anyone interested in making them into for-real videos yet.
What would you tell a beginning writer who wants to publish but doesn't believe he/she has enough talent?
Start small and short. And, for that matter, stay there. Most of the stories I write are short stories – they are about exploring a single concept. Short stories get finished a lot faster than novels. When I put together a book it is often a collection of short stories about a common theme.
The benefit of this is that things get done. A surprise benefit of this approach is that the movie scripts are a lot easier to write.
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