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I wanted to be a novelist for so long.

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

This sounds like a cliche, but I always wanted to write. After college, I did some writing and realized very quickly that it's hard to make a living as a writer. At that point, I was more interested in fiction writing.

In retrospect, it seems like everything in my life led to me becoming a writer. I just didn't realise it at the time.

While I was in high school, I discovered and began writing science fiction.

I started off doing fiction in 1993. It didn't occur to me to do nonfiction because it wasn't a thing yet. So I was bumbling around, writing short stories, and then I took a nonfiction workshop, and I realized that this was what I was supposed to do.

I spent several years acquiring the obsessive, day-to-day discipline that's needed if you want to write professionally, then several more, highly valuable years studying fiction writing at the University of Iowa.

I've carved out a career for myself really as a writer.

I can't say that I ever actually decided to become a writer. It kind of snuck up on me.