I'm a writer, and it turns out I'm no good for anything else. So now I have to give up and find a way to make it as a writer, and forget that it's probably the hardest way on earth to make a living.

I should have accepted all the heartbreak and failure that goes with learning the craft and never tried to be anything else. Or maybe not. Maybe I'm a better writer at 35 than at 15, not just because of what I've learned about writing, but because of what I've learned from everything I ever failed at, and everything I tried that didn't take me where I wanted to go.

My passion is ...

learning. I write to learn as often as I write to communicate.

I know too much about ...

nothing.

My parents always told me ...

it's more important to love your work than to make money.

My childhood ambition ...

To be like S.E. Hinton, who sold "The Outsiders" at age 17.

My favorite memory ...

alone in the yard at four in the morning, watching a meteor shower.

Why I write ...

I have to.

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

reading this, watching and listening to Project Runway.

My first job ...

bussing tables.

My best moment ...

anytime I can forgive and let it go.

My inspiration ...

rare moments of joyful wisdom.

Religion & Spirituality > Ghosts & Paranormal Phenomena The case against believing in paranormal activity

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You're a police detective, and you've got a stalled murder case or a missing kid.

Now you're a fed, and you know who killed the victim or where the missing kid wandered off to. Problem is, you can't tell the detective, because you only know what you do through a witness who can't or won't testify, or a wiretap you want to keep hidden, or satellite images from a commercial satellite company that doesn't want it widely known its eyes in the sky are made available to local law enforcement.

Enter the psychic. She's no more psychic than I am, maybe less (I'm not saying I don't believ...

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