I can't listen to music while writing - any such distraction would have dreadful consequences.

I try to write about things, places, events, and phenomena I know about personally. That helps make the novels more genuine.

My first job out of college was as an editorial assistant in a New York publishing house. Being an editorial assistant is the purgatory would-be editors must endure before they can ascend the ladder and begin acquiring books on their own. I spent a year filing paperwork, writing copy, and typing rejection letters.