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I began writing seriously in my mid-20s and didn't publish my first book until I was 41.

I didn't start writing my own books until I was 40.

I don't know how old I was when I started writing books. But, I was born in 1931, and I wrote my first book in 1961.

I wrote my first book at 20, but my whole focus from about the age of 12 was to be a writer.

In college, I wrote newspaper articles and songs. Then, on my 21st birthday, I sold my first book. It was a nonfiction book about women pirates - 'Pirates in Petticoats.' After that, I was a book writer for good.

At thirty-five, having spent over twenty years running varied businesses for my family, I decided to sit down and write my first novel. I had never written anything longer than a couple of pages till then and was foolishly attempting to write a hundred-thousand words.

I finished my first novel - it was around 300 pages long - when I was 16. Wrote one more before I got out of high school, then wrote the first Lincoln Perry novel when I was 19. It didn't sell, but I liked the character and I knew the world so I tried what was, in my mind, a sequel. Wrote that when I was 20, and that one made it.

Not until my middle thirties did I consider myself a novelist.