Wow…almost too many to list, and I always go all deer-in-the-headlines when that question is asked.   Star Wars, of  course!  I love Star Trek as well, the Narnia (books, haven’t seen all the movies yet), Lord of the Rings (books AND movies), Firefly, the Deryni Chronicles by Kathryn Kurtz, the Terminator movies (especially the first), nearly anything by James Cameron.

I was lucky enough to have a mother who adored reading.  I was read to as a child and was able to read at a fifth-grade level in first grade.  She is thrilled that I have become a professional author, although fantasy and science fiction isn’t quite her field.

A musical theater actress.  I had great English teachers in high school and college, and very negative experiences in theater during those formative years.  Perhaps it had been opposite, I might be on Broadway.  But I’m content right where I am.

That’s a great question.  I would say having done both that tie-in work is actually harder.  It has most of the same challenges as writing original fiction, but unique challenges that original fiction doesn’t.  First, you are writing not just to please yourself, but a whole group of other people, usually the creators of the world you’re working in.  Second, when you work with already established and beloved characters, you need to have an “ear” for capturing their speech.  No one can tell me I got Kevla, a main character in my Dancers series, “wrong,” because I created her.  But if I didn’t portray Captain Kirk or Han Solo in a way that readers agree with, well, then I could be accused of getting it “wrong.”  The joy, of course, is getting to do precisely that–write Kirk or Han, characters I know and love.

While we all came up with the Lost Tribe, and agreed on a character to fill the role of Vestara, it fell to me to introduce the culture and the character.  I got to give the Lost Tribe their love of glass, for instance, and to create how Vestara looked and behaved.  Wynn Dorvan is pretty much entirely mine.  He came into being kind of by accident–Troy Denning wanted me to have an “adviser to Daala” who owned a chitlik.  It was a throwaway reference in his book, but Wynn Dorvan and Pocket took off.  I’m very fond of my dry bureaucrat and his little pet, and he’s gotten good reader reception.  The journalists was also something we all agreed on, but Javis Tyrr and Madhi Vaandt are my creations.  Tyrr was of course the perpetrator of so-called “yellow journalism,” and Madhi was to be a sort of Ernie Pyle character to counteract Tyrr.

Lean.  I tend to write short, something I needed to work on for the second and third books in the series.  I’m not a big fan of “travelogue” description, so what’s there is there for a reason.  I love dialogue and character development, and I think those are my strongest points.  Though I think there is a nice space battle scene in Ascension that readers will be a bit surprised to see from me!

I love how you phrased that, thank you!   Sadly, most are now out of print, but the most recent series I’ve worked on is the Dancers series.  The first book is called On Fire’s Wings.  The series was canceled, but I still get many emails, weekly, about it, so I am sure that one day, I will get to finish it.

A collection of classic police procedurals.  Currently reading an Ed McBain 87th precinct novel.  The world lost a fine author when he passed away, his “voice” just blows me away every time I read one of his books.

Um….I don’t have one.  >.>  I’m so low tech!  Currently, I’m a big fan of anything by Lifehouse, if that helps

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