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My job is to put words together and tell a story. If that doesn't work for you, it's not a war crime.

I always wrote - not about war, necessarily, but I always wrote stories. I tried to write while I was in Iraq. It's not really - I didn't do a very good job, and not about war.

I wish I was the kind of writer who would go to a war zone and write about something that's meaningful and important to people, but that's not my area of coverage.

Now, when I was in the Army, writing was my hobby.

In the army you feel violated - there's no private space. Writing was a life-saver, a way of recovering private territory.

What ultimately happened is that my country had a war. I think it would be extraordinary, as a writer, not to want to write about that.

Still, something about writing made me spend large hours of my free time at my desk.

If I examine the circumstances which inspired me to write - and this is not mere self-indulgence, but a desire for accuracy - I see clearly that the starting point of it all for me was war.

I don't want to constantly be writing about terrorism and strife.

My experiences in the military, the private sector, and as a congressional staffer were at times almost enough to drive me crazy. Writing offered the all-too-often-cited creative outlet.