Hey, I'm a second career writer too! That's a fantastic piece. My background is in software and I still freelance to pay the bills. I have been writing on and

Hey, I'm a second career writer too! That's a fantastic piece. My background is in software and I still freelance to pay the bills. I have been writing on and off since I was old enough to hold a pen. Little fits and starts here and there, but by the time I was in my early twenties I focused on making a living instead of learning how to write. I dreamed of one day making enough money to retire and maybe write a few books. Three years ago I realized that was crazy. I wanted to write, putting it off until the end of my life not only increases the chance I'd never get to do it, but also means that I'd miss out on years and years of practice. I decided to do with writing what I did with programming—set aside nearly half my time to learn how to do it, then keep doing it until I could make a living. I'm not making a living anytime soon, but after three years I've written a couple novel manuscripts, published a short story collection, and am due to publish a novel at the end of the year. But I'm still hesitant to answer, "I'm a writer" when someone at a cocktail party asks what I do.