My last Post, from October, 2018, was on the “Writing Career,” but I find that as time goes on, I have more to say. I’ve been writing for close to thirty years and it’s been an engrossing activity from the beginning, but never more so than now. I hesitate to say it’s a “calling” or even an obsession. There are a lot of myths regarding the process of writing and the life of a writer. For me, it’s a craft, and as such it’s something that can be worked on, honed and improved. I’m not big on the “muse” or the “inspiration.” Mickey Spillane once claimed to have writer’s block. He just couldn’t get into it. Then some bills arrived that he didn’t have the money to pay. He got over his writer’s block pretty quickly. There is an attitude that the writer cultivates, however, and I expect that all writers, to some extent, have it. You learn to pay attention to things. You evaluate what you’re seeing and hearing. You listen to the cadence of a voice or an accent. You note a sunset or a beach or a stand of trees and think about the best words to describe it. To other people, you seem preoccupied or absent-minded. Henry James once described a snippet of dialogue or a overhead conversation that he could use in a book as a “Donner.” In French, this means a “gift.” And it’s also a gift to be have the resources to finally write full-time. In the past two years, I’ve published 9 books: eight novels and one non-fiction book on defensive investing. I hope I never stop.