Owning up.

I wrote my first novel when I was thirteen. Ever since then, I've written almost every day on one work-in-progress or another. It's a rare day that I don't think about writing, or actually write a few words, a paragraph, a page, or a chapter.

And yet, for years--and I'm talking about real life, here, not my internet presence--unless you knew me very well, you would never know that I was a writer. Or that I had books published. Because I kept that part of my life not so hidden, but more under w...