What motivates a writer?

Everybody has different motivations that make them do what they do.  Some people write because it was a childhood dream.  Others write to try and supplement their income.  Me I write because I genuinely love it.  Creating other lives, solving problems, it's a bit of a power trip where you control the world you create.  Michael Meyer, author of the thriller Covert Dreams, shares what motivates him as a writer.

Writing is a lonely avocation, just my trusty computer at my side, as I work hard to create people, places, and plots that other people might enjoy reading. Marketing one’s own writing is an extremely lonely business. Unlike having a traditional publisher and all of its clout behind me, I have only myself, and I am a writer, not a salesperson. I find it difficult to toot my own horn, though I know that it is essential in order to get word of the very existence of my work out to the reading public. So what keeps me going? The writing, of course, gives me a lot of enjoyment. I am actually like a reader as I write. I never quite know how things will turn out in the end, not only of the book itself, but also in specific scenes. I thoroughly enjoy working with words, stringing them together in a creative way. Language has always fascinated me. Can you goose a goose? Does a house burn up or burn down? If you are going to come visit me, are you coming or going? Why would you want to swipe your card at a cash register if you already own the card? There is a huge difference between snap to and snap at. The list can go on and on. I love to play with words as I write, and this can be seen in COVERT DREAMS.

            Marketing my own work, however, is a completely different ballgame. I am a good writer, but I lack a lot in the area of salesmanship. I do seek out as many reviewers, interviewers, and bloggers as I can, and I am very thankful for all of these people, but every hour I spend tooting my own horn could be spent creating, my real forte. So what keeps me plugging away at telling others about my work, you might ask? The answer is found in the wonderful reactions that readers have to my work. Their excitement serves to push me forward. I like people, and it makes me happy to see that they, in turn, like what I have created. Here are a few random lines from posted reviews of COVERT DREAMS on my Amazon author’s site as examples of what I mean:
            “This story will not disappoint as it sucks you right into these lives from page one and doesn't let go until the last page is turned.”
            “If you enjoy psychological thrillers and exotic locales, this is the book for you.”
            “This is the best book, bar none, that I've read in an eon. It grabbed me by the collar and wouldn't let me go…. I felt I was in the hands of a master.” 
            “[COVERT DREAMS] was like I was reading Robert Ludlum and the Bourne series.”
            “I'm looking forward to reading more from this wordsmith! Michael Meyer is a born storyteller!”
            “Covert Dreams is ‘I got captured’-reading, as opposed to ‘escape’-reading.”
            I think you can see what I mean. It is pretty heady stuff, the type of thing that helps me keep the faith. Michael Meyer.
Michael Meyer Author Bio
I have resided in and have visited many places in the world, all of which have contributed in some way to my own published writing. I have literally traveled throughout the world, on numerous occasions. I have lived in Finland, Germany, Thailand, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Saudi Arabia, where COVERT DREAMS is set. I gained the wanderlust to see the world, to experience other cultures, at an early age, and this desire has never left me. If anything, it has only gained in intensity as I have aged. I try to travel internationally at least once a year. In the interim, I spend lots of time traveling around both my home state of California and other nearby states.
            I spent my early years in the small town of Lone Pine, California, the home of almost every western movie, in addition to a wide variety of other genres, made in the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s. In fact, Hollywood still films parts of big-time movies there today. My dad, the town’s lifeguard at the time, personally knew John Wayne, Lloyd Bridges, and Lee Marvin, all of whom came to the town’s pool, the Memorial Plunge, at times to cool off after a hectic day of working in the sun. I was even an extra in a movie filmed there in 1957, MONOLITH MONSTERS, a B-cult favorite even today. I was ten years old at the time. Even though I resided in a small town hours from the big city, I was exposed to the excitement of action and heroes at a formative age, and, thus, my interest in writing novels of suspense such as COVERT DREAMS was born.
            As a recent retiree from a forty-year career as a professor of writing, I now live in Southern California wine country with my wife, Kitty, and our two other cats.