My home office and workshop are on an overlook on the only deep river gorge on the entire length of the Mississippi River.

Yeah, it's a weird little niche, but by God, it's my niche.

Some things are better than other things: Google, Gmail, my vintage Montgomery Wards socket set (30+ years, still going strong), my Estwing framing hammer, and my Dremel rotary tool.

I work with a lot of different editors at different publishers and magazines and so on, and having a system of shared folders makes keeping track of things a snap.

I specialize in science and history, with a special emphasis on including do-it-yourself projects in the mix. My dozen or so books have sold hundreds of thousands of copies. I'm also a contributing editor at Popular Science and at Make Magazine.

I always have a ton of projects in mind. On my ToodleDo list, I divide projects into those I'm actively working on, those I'm not doing but believe I will do, and those that sound good, but who knows if I'll ever get to them.

When I write, I love finding connections between ideas. When the connections are plentiful and strong, then I know it's a pretty good subject to write about.