It never occurred to me to seriously tackle college, although I did take a couple of classes, a couple drama classes, a couple writing classes, and these were in the days when junior colleges, at least, were virtually free. I knew I was a writer, though, so why not just start writing? Learn the craft. I read every book I could on the subject. I read both The Writer and ​Writer's Digest regularly for a decade, until I realized I, at last, had absorbed 98% of what they advised. Read endless writer interviews. Watched every writer I could on TV. A need to write at least two hours a day manifested itself. The writer's magazines suggested a great way for professional fiction writers to start was with what were known as "confession" magazines. Indeed, one of the leading magazines in this field at that time was called True Confessions. I wrote a couple dozen of them to "break into the business", become a professional, and did manage, eventually, to sell one. I was nineteen.

     This was also around the time the inspiration hit me that would, thirty years later, become the novel Cold-Blooded World, so I read dozens of mysteries and sent short story submissions to the Ellery Queen and ​Alfred Hitchcock mystery magazines. There, I had absolutely no success.

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