I should probably say something like, "I've wanted to be a writer since I was old enough to read," but that would be a lie or perhaps true but never articulated. Without awareness, I gravitated toward studying literature just as I gravitated toward writing. After teaching college writing for several years, I wrote professionally for sixteen years about things I cared nothing about: I spent the first three years writing training manuals for a healthcare company then the next thirteen writing articles for an IT trade journal. Despite the jobs' dry content, I loved them both because I love words. After a decade of dabbling (and grappling with inexplicable dread of my craft), I committed to practicing my instrument (i.e., the written word) daily. I favor short stories.