“I’ve been writing for twenty-five years. I just finished my...

“I’ve been writing for twenty-five years. I just finished my second novel. I had a really severe anxiety attack right before my deadline. I thought I was having a heart attack. I could barely breathe. I couldn’t calm down. Part of it was just the pressure of the deadline. But another part of it was the pressure to do something great. I feel like I’ve always been ‘almost there.’ I think I’m still trying to prove I’m a professional. I’ve always been on the playing field, but every time I get up to bat, the game gets cancelled for rain. I’m hoping to finally break through. I don’t know what form that will take. Maybe a bestseller, or a great review, or an invitation to sit on a panel. When I read interviews with successful authors, most of them point at a specific event, and say: ‘After that happened, I never looked back.’ And that’s what I want. To never look back.”