This is the place where I'm supposed to say that I always wanted to be a writer. The only problem is that I didn't. I can't quite put my finger on the exact time the urge began to come upon me, but it had hit in earnest by the time I was 40-years-old.  

My first article, Phone-Ring Visual Indicator, appeared in the October, 1988 issue of, the now defunct, Modern Electronics. Yes, in real life, I'm a techie.  

If I remember correctly, I think I made something on the order of $350.00. The money was nice, but what really impressed me was that somebody thought my stuff was good enough to print.  

I'd like to say that that's when my writing career took off. But it didn't. I wrote another article, Put Your Telephone on Hold, that appeared in the May, 1989 issue of the same magazine. And that was it. I had ideas for several other articles. I even started some. But family, job changes and the ordinary press of life reduced my output to zero.  

But the urge never died. I still wanted to write, but it never occurred to me that I'd write fiction. I honestly thought that if I ever wrote anything it would be some technical tome or a treatise on some obscure point of Scripture. I didn't even like fiction all that much, and hadn't read much of it since the 1960s.  

Then one day, out of shear boredom, I picked up a novel my wife had been reading. I remember, when I finished it I thought two things: This was pretty good and I can do better. That was 2004, the year I began writing the manuscript of Justice for Amy. I have since gained a whole new respect for the author of that book about which I said, "I can do better."  

Writing is hard work! But I think I'm hooked. Anybody who would go through what it takes to get a novel published these days must be. Another good indicator is that I'm still writing. My second novel, Missing, and Presumed Dead (working title), is well underway and I've got a couple of more articles to my credit as well; not to mention more book ideas.  

When will it end? I hope not until I'm too feeble to type or too blind to see what I'm typing. Maybe, by that time, they'll have speech recognition perfected. 

Andy

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