As the author, how would you describe your book?
This is a collection of poetry that spans the years of my life. (As I put it together, I was mortified to realize just how many years.) It reflects stages of my life, ways of thinking, ideas; yet it is not chronological. It was important to me not to put them in life's order. Life is never orderly. The journey from there to here never feels like a straight line.

What was your goal in writing this collection?
These poems are "me" in a great many ways; yet the goal of my poetry is not arrogance. I do not believe I am so important that the reflections of my own soul deserve pages of their own. I am merely one of many, a member of the tribe, with feelings and thoughts just like everyone else. I record. If you see only me, then I have failed.

Can you tell us something about you as a writer, i.e. when you started writing, what's your creative process is like, what inspires you, etc.?
I have been writing poetry for almost as long as I can remember. Not just here and there, but in a disciplined manner, overall. I was the quiet, thoughtful kid who got in trouble for reading Chaucer in elementary school and spent too much time watching the river flow.

Poetry has always amazed me. The ability to write a novel on a matchbook cover is quite an undertaking. If there is one word that is not right, the whole thing falls apart. It's like tinkering—but obsessively so. One of my shortest poems took nearly a year until I could let go of it, until it felt just right. It is fun. It is gut-wrenching. It is frustrating. It is all consuming, yet it spits back so very much.

Inspiration...gee, all one has to do is breathe! It has a rhytmn; it has a reason. It is all around.

Sometimes I randomly pick a word from the dictionary and build a poem from it. Sometimes a poem will build itself. Sometimes it builds me. Sometimes it has festered inside of me for so long that I have no choice. To me, poets are recognizable more for how they live and think, than for how they craft a poem. A blade of grass can turn into a project. A red wheel barrow can be monumental.

How do you keep a balance between family, work, and your writing?
When I am in a "poetry mood," my writing just naturally assumes a prominent role in my life. It just fits. I think what helps though is that writing poetry is more of an internal process, compared to prose that consumes so much time. I can work on a poem in the line at a grocery store...or in my dreams...or driving through the fray. The pen is inside, as is the paper.

Can you tell us something about you as a person?
I am an introvert. I have a rich life, but you'd be hard pressed to notice it from the outside. Some people know me from the inside out and those are the people I love. I'm eccentric. I feel to the bone. I don't trust very easily, but when I do, it is deep. I love language. I love the sun but I have a true affinity for the moon.

If you had a chance to be mentored by one author (living or dead), who would you choose and why?
The neat thing about writers is that they never truly die; their words live on for them. In that light, I can be mentored by any one at any time. By Chaucer, by Sexton, by Dickinson...any one of them is there to teach and reach me.

So if I pick one, I would pick a dead one, and I would make it me. I would pick my own brain to find out what this was all for, what can I avoid regretting, what would make me better now rather than when hindsight sets in, what did I miss, what could I have laughed off...

Despite the wisdom that says you can't take it with you, if you could take four things with you when you leave this world, what would they be?
I honestly believe that what really matters will always be with me. The important things and people in my life provide something inside of me that can never be erased. The stuff that makes it possible to be alone without being lonely, to feel loved even in absence—those are the things that matter most to me. So I beg to differ, I can take it with me.

What is your view of epublishing? What opportunities does it provide for you and for other authors? What do you think is the future of epublishing?
I think e-publishing is a great opportunity for both readers and writers. Too many good writers and poets have been denied an audience for purely financial reasons and those potential readers have lost. If my book bombs, the only paper wasted will have been my own, and even then, not truly.

I don't think e-publishing will ever replace the printed page; yet it will hold a steadfast place in our lives. If people truly loves words, they will seek them out in all forms.

What other published works do you want us to know about?
I self-published an anthology when I was a kid. That was an awesome experience. Since then, I have always made it my goal to be published (even if only a poem) once a year, and other than a few years when I was too busy looking at other things, I have done so. I also have a pretty cool stack of rejection slips—not your ordinary ones, but ones from when I was a kid that were—and are—so kind and encouraging. I always swore that one day I would wallpaper.

What projects are you currently working on ?
I think writing will always be a part of my life in one way or another. Sometimes it is more, sometime less, but I am always working on something. Sometimes living it is the project; sometimes transcribing it is.