In the weeks before the release of First, i played Twenty Questions on social media sites (Facebook, LinkedIn), answering common questions as well as some from the comments sections.

Here are those Questions and Answers.

Question #1: Where do you get your story ideas from?

A: It's a common question for writers and always seemed to me the answer is like describing why you fall in love with this person and not that person: it's hard to put into words and make it make sense. But please, that's not going to keep me from trying. Maybe a couple of examples will help. The story idea for First percolated in my brain for a long time, probably over a year. The thought of a single person being the first to see the light from another star up close intrigued me enough to write a book about it and of course, make things go sideways. Wouldn't be much of a story if everything went according to plan. In contrast, the idea for my upcoming book Next Time hit me at 3:30 one morning when I was awake from jet lag. I started writing it two days later and it was one of those rare instances where it felt like the book wrote itself. It's not a very satisfying answer, I know, but my story ideas hijack my brain in various ways and at weird times. Ask this question of a hundred writers and you'll probably get a hundred different answers.

Question #2: Why independent publishing?

A: I self-published three books on Amazon several years ago, mainly for family and friends, and didn't do much promotion. With First and the upcoming books, I wanted a professional product and wider distribution. I tried the traditional publishing route (see tomorrow's question) although I had this gut feeling I'd still end up with the independent option. After spending several weeks querying literary agents, whether by default or divine providence, I decided to go with a company that professionally publishes books. They did a fantastic job on the cover and interior formatting for both print and eBook formats, plus they distribute the book everywhere. And I mean everywhere. This time it's available wherever you buy books, and not just Amazon. I'm grateful we live in a time where authors have the option to do this now and aren't reliant on the agent-publisher model anymore. The good news? I control the fate and marketing of the books. The bad news? I control the fate and marketing of the books.

Question #3: Did you try to get published by one of the big book publishers?

A: Why yes, yes I did. I decided I had to give it a shot to make sure I had no regrets. Okay, really it was sheer laziness. I wanted someone else to take care of all the ins and outs of publishing and marketing and that seemed worth the effort to find an agent. Even though it took time away from writing I wanted to give it my best effort. So, I went all-in and spent about six weeks last year researching literary agents and sending the query letter, a synopsis, author bio, sample chapters, and anything else each of them requested. About half of them replied very nicely, a response rate that seems about par for the course. If you know anything about the current state of book publishing, well, let's just say I don't fit the profile of the authors they're looking for and leave it at that. Or maybe my book sucked. Or both. In the end, I think it worked out the way it was supposed to. Even though I didn't get a seven-figure advance from a big publishing house and probably will never get rich off my writing, I can publish what I want, when I want. To be clear, though, I'm still willing to talk about movie rights.

Question #4: What did you learn from writing this book?

A: Paying an editor for a consult is well worth the money. And it's not as expensive as you think. My sister, who writes completely different types of books than me, connected me with her editor. Let's call this editor Terri, which seems appropriate because that's her name. Terri read through my manuscript, provided a half-dozen pages of feedback as well as notes throughout the manuscript, and talked through it all with me over the phone. She pointed out several flaws I'd completely missed and offered suggestions to improve the story. Terri was spot on and still managed to avoid crushing my fragile author's ego.

Beyond hiring an editor, I also learned that the thoughts in my own head where I'm uneasy regarding a scene or direction are probably valid. For instance, Terri pointed out my main character did some cool things in the middle of the book but I'd given no prior indication he possessed those skills. Something in the back of my mind had been telling me the same, but she put it into words. Learning to trust my instincts and define the problems turned out to be valuable lessons learned. Writers might be able to get some of this from writer's groups and peer reviews, but in my experience people in those circles tend to be too nice. Spring for an editor who'll be brutally honest.

Question #5: What did you do differently in writing First than you did with your previous books?

A: Reading it out loud. Knowing this would be my first professionally published book, I wanted it to be as close to perfect as possible. Which means I read through it at least a dozen times. The big difference I'd never tried before was that one of those times I read the book out loud to myself. Seems weird, right? No argument there, but still it's something I'd recommend for every writer. This tactic helped in several ways. First, hearing the characters' dialogue spoken out loud helped me modify the wording to hopefully sound more natural. Second, I caught typos and missing/extra words I'd overlooked during the previous passes through the manuscript. And finally, reading aloud gave me a better sense of the ebb and flow of the story and the scenes. I'm not saying it actually turned out perfect, but reading the book aloud to myself helped it to not suck so badly. I hope.

Question #6: Do these stories appear in your dreams, either before or after you've written them?

A: Strangely enough, that's never happened that I recall, and I usually remember my dreams. Honestly, I'm not sure I'd be okay with dreaming about my stories and characters. Thus far they've respected my boundaries in that regard. Where these stories do appear in my head, though, is when I'm running. Several times a week I plug in the earbuds, turn on music I've probably heard a thousand times, and go for a nice run to clear my head after work. Maybe it's because my mind tends to wander during the hour or so of exercise, or maybe it's just the lack of oxygen to my brain, but whatever the case, I regularly experience flashes of inspiration along the running trail. Those lightning bolts have included ways to get out of a corner I've written myself into, a missing ingredient to make the story better, and even a completely different direction where I end up trashing several thousand words of a book in progress. Sometimes clearing the mind opens the path for those thoughts to sprint past the regular clutter swirling in our brains.

Question #7: You have a full-time job. When the heck do you find time to write?

A: I realized a few years ago that writing after work was a non-starter for me. Too tired from sitting in meetings and in front of a computer all day. When I determined to make a change, I started getting up progressively earlier over the course of a few weeks so I could write before work. For anyone who knows me, this was a BIG deal since I wring every second of sleep from the night. My schedule the past couple of years has been to start with breakfast and lots of coffee and then spend 75-90 minutes writing. During that time, depending on the level of caffeine in my blood, I can write anywhere from 1,000 to 1,800 words. And I try to finish by knowing what I'm going to write next. That way the next day my early-morning brain already knows where to start and I don't waste time. After the morning writing session, it's time to focus on the job that pays the bills. Sure, I write on weekends sometimes, too, but mostly I've shoehorned it into my schedule before work. I'm well aware that timing doesn't work for everyone and I was afraid it wouldn't work for me. Maybe the best timing is after the kids go to bed at night. Maybe it's on vacation. Maybe it's during lunch break. Mine just happens to be earlier in the day so then I can concentrate on my day job.

Question #8: What software and other tools do you use to write?

A: I keep it simple. Yes, I know the intense hatred some people have for Microsoft Word. It has its downsides but for the most part it works well enough for what I want it to do. While my brain is doing its creative thing I don't want to be distracted by the software as I'm banging away on the keyboard. If anyone remembers WordPerfect and what a pain that was to use for some of the most routine tasks, then you're picking up what I'm saying about Word's simplicity.

Believe it or don't, I wrote most of my first three books by hand. In notebooks. What a Luddite, right? Notebooks were portable, I didn't have to scramble to find a charger with the right connection for my device, and I could write anytime, anywhere. Of course, eventually I had to transcribe the handwriting into a word processor, but I convinced myself that was just the first round of editing. I tried Scrivener for a while when transcribing and liked it well enough. It was very useful when I moved chapters and sequencing around. Lately, though, that's been less of an issue and I've lapsed back into what's comfortable.

Question #9: When you're immersed in your antagonist's mind and writing from that POV, is it difficult or does it take time to return to "normal?"

A: I'm well aware this question assumes I'm somewhat "normal." Let's leave that part of the discussion to the experts. Fortunately, I don't usually experience a transition time from writing to normal, mainly because on most days I finish writing and jump directly into the business world of my day job. It probably helps that I'm not writing from the point of view of psychotic characters. If I wrote a book through the eyes of a serial killer I hope my response to this question would be different. For the most part, my narrators or main characters are regular people thrust into difficult situations. I think that keeps me from having to transition into an extreme mindset and then back to normal. Do I completely stop thinking about the story and characters after I put away the personal laptop and log into my work computer? I think there's always a background thread in my mind churning away at the story and if it becomes more insistent I pay attention to it later in the day. Sometimes transitioning from the work mindset back to the world of make-believe is tougher than going the other direction.

Question #10: I feel like I can write a book or something. How do I get started?

A: For starters, don't let someone tell you how to get started. There are no prerequisites to writing your own story, whether it's fiction or non-fiction. You don't have to spend years in school to get a MFA in Creative Writing, but you can if you want. You don't have to join a writer's group, but you can if you want. You don't have to buy expensive writing software, but you can if you want. You don't have to write a bunch of short stories before you write a novel, but you can if you want. Catching the theme here? If you have something in your heart or brain you want to translate into words on a page, get started in whatever way feels best for you and don't be afraid to make mistakes along the way. I know it sounds pie-in-the-sky, but if the urge to write is strong enough, you'll do it because it's part of you and you can't help but write.

Question #11: How do you know when a story is done?

A: Very sly, a question with more than one interpretation. The first is to take it as wondering how I know when it's time to type "The End" and sit back with a smile of satisfaction at completing the manuscript. Even though I don't always know the exact ending for books when I start writing them, I have a vague idea where I want to go. I usually stick with the three-act format, meaning the third act resolves all the conflicts of the first two. When I've reached that resolution and can send the characters on their merry way, that's a good time to say I'm done.

The other view of the question regards recognizing that moment when I'm done with all the editing and feel ready to send the manuscript to a publisher. It's when I've addressed all the notes an editor or I listed, when I've tied up all the loose ends, and when I've edited the book so many times I almost have every word memorized. It means the tinkering is complete. But is it ever really done? Nope. I can stretch this part out for weeks and months, but at some point it begins to feel like stalling. If you're writing on a deadline the temptation to revise until the last moment is strong, but at least there's a predefined point in time to stop. When the non-deadline writing life doesn't give me a finish line, I have to realize there's a time where I have to stop and say I've done all I know to do.

Question #12: What's your biggest pet peeve when reading a book?

A: Errors. One of my earlier answers mentioned how great it is to live in a time where authors can release our own books without agents or the big publishing houses. The unfortunate casualty of this revolution is quality. Errors take the reader out of the experience. I've read books where I'm not sure the author ever reviewed the manuscript after typing out the first draft. I've given up on reading books because of that, which is sad because in some cases the story was good but the accumulation of errors finally overwhelmed me.

This problem seems to exist more in the eBook realm since self-publishing there is easy and accessible. I recently read a long series on Kindle Unlimited, and almost dropped it partway through the first book. I'm glad I didn't since the series turned out to be really enjoyable and the mistakes lessened with each book. Not sure if the author hired a proofreader or just got better, but my point is that authors should do everything in their power to put out a professional product. If I can get a reader immersed in the world I've created, I don't want them to be jolted back into this world because I was sloppy.

Question #13: Is what inspired you to start writing different than what inspires you to continue writing?

A: Ah, a philosophical question. Thinking back, I'm not sure what started me down the writing path. From my early elementary years I remember hand-writing letters to my great-grandfather and receiving his typed-out replies via the magic of the postal service. My grandmothers both wrote, as did several of my uncles. The writing center at NMSU-Alamogordo is named in honor of my Grandma Brown, who taught English in public schools and later at the university. The love of language seems hereditary and somewhere along the way I started writing short stories and submitting them to magazines. I was naïve enough to think if I could just get a story in the New Yorker during my Raymond Carver phase I'd be on my way, with unsurprisingly little success. Later I wrote a series of books never finished or published, and in the 2010s finally self-published three books. In the past few years what was once a sporadic hobby became a habit. I'm not sure I could say it's the same thing that got me started, but I still enjoy it and as long as I have ideas and something worthwhile to write I'll keep flailing away. Maybe someday when I hit retirement age writing will serve a higher purpose to keep me off the streets and out of trouble.

Question #14: How do you plan your stories? Do you wake up one morning with a vision of the plot and add details, start with a scene and build from there, start at the beginning and see where the story takes you, etc.?

A: That sounds like more than one question, but I'll allow it and count it as only one since it came from my daughter. I take this as a form of the 'outline vs. freestyle' question. As we've previously established, I'm lazy. When I have a book idea I do a little bit of very high-level outlining as well as trying to answer a few profound questions: why write this book and does the world need this particular story? I also list themes and jot down critical moments already rolling around in my head. All of that usually takes about one page in a notebook. With that minimalist approach to prep work, I'm really more of a see-where-the-story-takes-me kind of guy and that's because of the characters. Sometimes they act differently than what I originally expected, darn them. I've completely changed directions in some of my stories because of a character. I know there are plenty of writers who work from detailed outlines, but that's not me. When a character surprises me, I enjoy it. That's one of the fun parts of writing.

Question #15: How do you decide where to divide chapters?

A: I want each chapter to turn out like a scene from a movie or television show. Can I say television still? Or is it better to say streaming? I don't nail it every time but in my mind a chapter should have a purpose to move the story forward and leave a vivid impression in the reader's mind. A great example of this from another medium comes from one of the best shows of the past twenty years, Breaking Bad. Yes, they had a disproportionate number of scenes around the breakfast or dinner table consisting of meaningful glances between characters. However, as the series went along it felt like every scene in every episode ratcheted up the intensity. As a viewer I became totally invested in every line of dialogue in every scene. What great writing. I know I'm nowhere near that good but as a rule that's how I want my chapters to be in book form. Each should lead into the next. If you read a James Patterson book he's perfected his own formula: short, easily digested chapters, propelling the reader to the next. That's not really my style, but it shows how to keep readers going. As much as I can I try to maintain the forward momentum. Again, not always successfully, just a goal.

Question #16: You kind of made a disparaging comment about writers' groups in one of the earlier questions. Care to elaborate?

A: Well, I wasn't trying to be disparaging, just trying to make a point about the benefits of hiring a professional editor. I've belonged to several writers' groups over the years. In fact, at one point I was the president of a group with about a hundred members who met monthly in-person and I really enjoyed the experience. I also joined some online critique groups. The rule was if you reviewed five submissions, either short stories or a chapter from a novel, you could submit your own for review. This is the point in the earlier post where I said people in these groups were too nice.

I'd written a short story from the POV of a character who lived on a desert planet. I received about a dozen reviews with plain vanilla comments, except for one that was brutally negative. This guy from the critique group didn't like it at all, but he wrote one comment I still remember. A line in my story said something like, "Some nights I dream of water." The guy who wrote the critique said, "This one good line makes me think you could actually write." He savaged the rest of the story and that was the best feedback I ever received from a writers' group. Was it nice? No. Was it useful? Yes. Maybe in writing our reviews for others we tend to keep the feedback positive because of our instinct to not be crappy to people who will have the chance to be crappy back to us. My earlier point still stands: pay money to a professional editor to be crappy to you. It's worth it.

Question #17: You talked in an earlier question about how you don't have to do certain things to be a writer, like getting a degree. Did you ever take any writing courses or join any programs?

A: Well, heh heh, you caught me. My last semester of school I needed three credits to maintain my status as a full-time student, so I signed up for a creative writing class. My major was accounting and the writing course was the best class I ever took in college. Why? Because it turned out to be so different. In business school we all sat in the lecture rooms and rarely interacted with each other. Get in and get out seemed to be the motto. In the English department the fifteen or so of us sat around a big table and had to look each other in the eye and converse like actual people. The whole experience ended up being more like the real world than the bubble of the business college. Plus, it was my first exposure to having my writing critiqued by others and doing the same in return. Looking back, the instructor and other students seemed surprised some nerdy accounting major could write. I even got an A for the semester. Maybe my answer to this question would be different if I'd ended up with a C-minus. Regardless, my overall writing experience included that class. I've sat in workshops at conferences, been a member of writers' groups, and so on. That's my story and your mileage may vary.

Question #18: What if I don't get an agent and I don't have the money to self-publish my book?

A: Amazon. You can self-publish your book for free. The catch? You have to do all the work yourself, including the proofreading, formatting, uploading, and marketing. Cover creation, line and copy editing, and ad campaigns are also tasks you can do on your own.

Will you upload your book and get rich? The odds are low. Will you create an amateur-looking cover? Odds are high. Sorry to be a buzzkill. But on Amazon you can put out your work for people to download as an eBook or for print-on-demand (POD) at no cost other than your time. That's how I published my first three books. It would've been nice to hire someone to create professional covers but at the time I wasn't in the financial position to do so. Same with editing and marketing. Like I've said in response to previous questions, we live in a world where you don't have to go the traditional publishing route, or even with the self- or hybrid-publishing companies. Keep in mind that doing it all yourself is very much an uphill battle and you'll have to learn additional skills that take time away from actually writing.

Question #19: You aren't a best-selling author and you're answering all these questions like you're some kind of writing guru. Don't you think you should be at least moderately successful before you start dispensing advice?

A: Harsh! Who wrote that question? Oh, I did. Wow, I can be such a jerk sometimes. But it's a fair question. Look, I'm not an expert but I do have some experience along the writing journey. If anyone reads these Q&A posts and learns from my experiences, then it's been worthwhile. Maybe my life is intended to serve as a warning to others. Whether it's how to avoid time-wasters, feeling encouraged, or even kickstarting the desire to start writing, I hope something in these posts is helpful. What you've been reading the last few weeks is from my perspective. Other writers would no doubt answer the same questions in completely different ways and in some cases have more impact since they're successful and famous. I've tried to avoid the "you have to do it this way or you're not a writer" mentality. That's not how it works. Follow your own path and enjoy the journey.

Question #20: Why?

A: Because I have to write the story to know how it ends.