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I quit my job, and went ashore to become a writer.

I was writing fiction, but not finishing fiction.

I began writing fiction when I started running out of material in my own life.

I stopped working a few years ago because I just lost a spark that I'd had before. I thought I'd just try writing, and maybe start directing, but I did it very quietly.

I wanted to be a writer, but at the time, I spent my days working a retail job, my nights sleeping in my childhood bedroom, and while I had written short stories here and there, I didn't know how to write good fiction anymore than I knew how to perform good brain surgery.

I stopped being an engaged journalist and became a disengaged novelist.

Writing happened to me. I didn't decide to start writing or to be a writer. I never wanted to be a writer.

I never wanted to be anything but a writer, and I never let go of it.

I wrote for years before I was ever published, and I don't think I could ever stop. That said, I was also a veterinarian before I sold my first book, and I still volunteer my time to help with animal welfare causes. So that is a career I would be happy to return to - while still secretly writing strange stories back in my doctor's office.

When I first quit my day job, I was terrified. I called my editors and said I'm trying to make a go of this, and they threw every contract at me they could. And for two years, I had a book or an anthology out every month.