​What inspired you to write the story Elaty Riaf?
One day, as I navigated the oceans of online dating, I thought about how much easier it would be if fairy godmothers were real. Then I had a pessimistic thought about the usefulness of magical godparents. That became the crux of this story.
 
How did you come up with the name Elaty Riaf?
Read her name from end to beginning.
 
Why did you choose the occupation that Elaty Riaf has?  Did you do research on it or have you personally experienced it?
I have personally experienced the role of activities director and saw no reason Elaty couldn’t be in the same position. My passion for this story comes from the life lessons taught to me by the elderly people I’ve worked for.
 
The dating conversations were particularly humorous, especially how they tied into the rest of the Fairy Tale.  How did you come up with those lines?
Many of the lines were straight out of my dating inbox. I just altered them with fairy tale references. A good use for some of those negative experiences. One I couldn’t fit in was “I want to sniff your glass slipper.”
 
I understand that the author of Elaty Riaf is working on a full length novel.  Could you tell us a little bit about that?
I took a break from editing Gender Chasm to write “Elaty Riaf”. My novel is a new adult fiction about a girl named Frieda who tries to save her brother. The theme is Men’s Rights. In their world, the nation has been divided into two sides: one ruled by Men, and one ruled by Women.
 
Do you believe in the happily ever after ending?
Yes. You can live ever happily if you find someone who loves you for you and you both want to be besotted. If you have that, and the same life goals, I believe all dragons can be defeated.

Math isn't that hard, or so they say.  Here's a test of how easy math is for you.  If I said, X = 20-3^2*2 what is the answer?  The correct answer is to do exponentiation first, multiplication/division second, and then addition/subtraction last.  So X = 20 - 9 *2 = 20 - 18 = 2.  If you don't believe it, type the formula into excel and see what answer it spits out.  Trust me, it's two.

Ok, now let's talk about weird math.  If I said something is infinite, there's not a bigger number or set now is there?  Well, the answer to that isn't simple either.  Take the positive integers, 0, 1, 2, 3, etc.  Obviously that set contains an infinite number of numbers.  Now take all of the numbers between and including 0 to 1.  That's an infinite number too.  Is one of them bigger?  The answer is, believe it or not, drum roll please, YES.  The way to prove it is to do a one to one comparison.  Take 0 and 1 as they are.  Then invert 2 to 1/2, 3 to 1/3, 4 to 1/4.  If you fill in the inverted numbers between 0 and 1, you'll realize that the inversion of the positive integers doesn't fill up all of that space.  So the numbers between zero to one are a bigger infinity.  There turns out to be orders of infinity.  So if you really hate someone tell them that you hate them to the infinity of the infinite order (3 is considered tops right now, but it may be due to our limited 3D view of things).  They won't be able to top that number.

If that blows your mind, think about the square route of negative one.  It's often called "i" or "j".  The number really doesn't have any meaning other than solving X^2 + 1 = 0.  The strange thing is mathematicians use these numbers especially when periodic data is employed or when a problem can be transformed into complex space, solved, and then transformed back.  So even a number that can't possibly exist can be used to solve complex equations. 

Any thought that mathematics is logical now seems a little warped, doesn't it?

During my travels, I've encountered four immutable laws that resemble titles on the Big Bang Theory.  Those four laws are:

Fleming's Axiom --- There will be a Waffle House at every major southeastern interstate exit in the US.  If there isn't a Waffle house; it's not a major exit.  In the North this Axiom transforms into, every major northern interstate exit will have the menu option of Waffles.

"Honey, I'm hungry."  A wife states to her husband as their driving on the interstate.

"There's an exit coming up ahead?"

"Do they have waffles?"

"No."

"Keep driving until we reach civilization."

Alexander's Axiom --- Every plant has their own Lenny. 

Lenny is the guy that does strange things that everyone else talks about.  Take for example the story of the man who masturbated on a scoffing machine, detached his scrotum, and stapled it back with a staple gun.  Yep, that was that plant's Lenny.

Currier's Corollary --- Product development is a lot like evolution.

At first a new product has no form, but there is much excitement of what it will be, and the margins look great.  Then if things turn our right, the product will take shape, swim, get legs, and eventually walk out onto the beach.  When Mr. Currier was asked where he would be in this process, he stated he would be at the beach.

Kaufman's Corollary --- Every good meeting generates its own list.

"Are we having a meeting today?"

"Yes, I brought coffee and donuts, " says the moderator.

"What are we going to talk about?"

"I thought we would brainstorm about life."

"But donuts are fattening and the coffee isn't decaffeinated.  I'm afraid I can't make this meeting."

The same conversation with a good meeting.

"Are we having a meeting today?"

"Yes, I bought decaf and regular coffee along with bagels, low fat cream cheese, cream cheese, and fruit.  We're going to go over my agenda and cover each topic and assign action points."

"That sounds delicious, and you sound prepared.  Yes, I will go to your meeting."

I'm sure you've all heard that the pen is mightier than the sword, but what are we doing with the pen?  We're writing down WORDS on either paper or on a computer file.  Now watch this.  If you rearrange the word SWORD you get WORDS.  Is this a coincidence?  I think not.  Take another example.  The word TEAM.  If you have a good TEAM, that's great, but if you don't, the word TEAM can transform into MEAT.  Did the ancient language linguists do this on purpose.  I'm betting that they are laughing their asses off right now.

This is my first Blog post, so please bear with me. I've spent the bulk of my life learning what science had to offer and creating a variety of new products for my employers. But as of late, my imagination is forcing me to try something new.  I've always had imagination, but I found it difficult to put things down on paper.  Writing hasn't come easy for me.  It's a work in progress, but with time, coaching, editing, I believe I'm getting there.  If you have the ability to envision new worlds or possibilities, then, with the right training, story telling will follow. 

In my Blog I hope to cover both writing and mind bending yet simple to grasp mathematics.  I'm presently the organizer of the Frederick Writers Salon and an Event Host in the Western Writers Meet Up group.  I hope that you'll join me.