I made a decision back in 2010 that changed my life. I made a commitment to write a novel and publish it. I had written my first fantasy novel back when I was 16 years old and for the longest time I floundered. I struggled to get the book published, wrote a second book (a sequel to the first) that still sits on my virtual shelf as well as a good number of short stories. All the time I kept listening to the critics around me: You can't earn a living being a fiction writer. (Dean Wesley Smith takes a nice sledgehammer to that urban myth and debunks it with flare. Be sure to check his article out.)