I had a brief theater background and loved the backstage world there's more backstage work in television, so I saw a job advertised and applied, and got it. That was back in 1977, when getting jobs was easy.

I have three desks. One empty for paperwork, one for the internet and email, and one for the writing computer.

You see something scary, you should stand up and step toward it, not away from it. Instinctively, reflexively, in a raging fury.

I don't know what the secret is when I am writing it - it really is a surprise to me.

The third guy was different. He was what you got when you ate squirrels for four generations. Smarter than a rat and tougher than a goat, and jumpier than either one.

I'm not afraid of death. Death's afraid of me.

So, how to stay inside the world of entertainment without actually getting another job? I felt the only logical answer was to become a novelist. So I wrote the first book - driven by some very real feelings of desperation - and it worked.