I wrote the first draft in the hospital parking lot, twenty minutes at a time, before the night shift started.

Nobody at work knew I was writing a book. For two years I just looked tired.

You learn to hear what a patient is not saying. That turned out to be most of what dialogue is.

My editor cut the chapter I loved most, and honestly, she was right. I wrote that one for me.

Rejection letters got easier to read than a bad night in triage. Nobody dies from a form letter.

I still pick up two night shifts a month.