I've written some books that have been marketed as westerns, I don't consider myself a "western" author.

Early influences were Mark Twain, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells. Add lots of comic books, Mad Magazine, some Playboy interviews and science fiction into the mix. Later came Hemingway and Fitzgerald, and more recently, Joseph Campbell.

Most of what I read came from the public library, some of it I squandered my money on, and a small percentage of the rest--such as the Playboys--was stolen from the corner drugstore (don't try this at home, kids).

School bored me, and I was a perennial troublemaker--sometimes with good reason, considering some of the cretins I had to deal with--and I was what they now call an "at-risk" student.

I always knew I was going to be a writer, even when my high school guidance counselor advised me to "give up these pipe dreams" and do the sensible thing by joining the military.

When Raiders of the Lost Ark first came out, I remember being absolutely taken with it and thinking to myself, "somebody gets paid to write this stuff, and maybe someday it will be me."

The Indiana Jones books have proved more difficult to write than I first imagined. But that's because I treat them with the same respect as I do my other books, and because they tend to take a relatively long time to write.

I'm thrilled to be able to do something I love to do--tell stories--and get paid for it.