Q: You stole the last year of your NDEA fellowship to teach yourself to write.
A: Yes. I signed up for Thesis to draw my stipend, stayed at home, and wrote.
I developed my work habits. Found my seat.
By the end of my do-it-yourself year I was a writer.
I had written 2½ books.
I wrote every day.
I woke up with the writing roaring in my head.
Q: Your books were rejected.
Didn’t that shake your confidence?
A: Doug Stanton says Special Forces aren’t looking for winners so much as for people who rebound from defeat.
Who improvise.
Who aren’t damaged by a setback, but learn from it.
Q: You learned from what happened to you in graduate school.
A: Yes.
I was right and they were wrong.
The same thing was happening in my dealings with editors and agents.
It takes time to find the right person.
Actually, they have to find you, and you can’t make that happen.
You have to be patient and not get discouraged.
You have to be secure. Mature. Seasoned.
I was seasoned by failure.
It didn’t break me, it made me stronger.