He'd been there more than twenty years. 

He didn't count his hours, he was compliant and super professional. Maybe too much so...

Every writer I admired seemed to have a 10+ year head start on me.

I'd read their stories and do the math. By my age they'd had a decade of practice. Two decades of audience. A head start I could never buy back.

English isn't my first language.

My native language is French. I grew up speaking it. I still think in it. I still dream in it.

I'm 55.

Every time I write it, I know it grabs attention. And that's what I'm going for.

There's a kind of tired no amount of sleep can fix.

For years, I called it burnout.