This is me, in 1999, working for a software company. I’d finished writing my first book called THE DREAM OF THE ARCHER. And I was deep into my second project, THE GOSPEL OF THE SEVERED EARTH.

Thirteen years later I got my first contract on THE NEVER PRAYER. And six years after that? I’m quitting my job to write full time. It’s all because I met James A. Hunter at Shadow Alley Press. We worked together on some books and had so much fun doing it.

And this is my resignation letter:

Hi all,
My counterpart, Don Bauman, and I used to talk about the eventual resignation letter we’d be sending out. You see, back in San Jose, California, in 1997, we had people leave weekly during the dot.com boom. People left to get other jobs, so we saw a lot of resignation letters.

I never thought I’d be sending out one of my own, leaving the world of software to write books full time. So, far, I’ve published eighteen books under various pen names, and my royalties are enough for me to say goodbye. This has been a lifelong dream, ever since I was in third grade. And now, I get to pursue it. I feel very blessed. Working for home, instead of showering, dressing, and commuting to and from work, I used every free second to write. I also got used to getting up early, since my children never, ever slept. Now they’re teenagers and sleep all the time. Ha.

While writing novels has been my passion, I am EXTREMELY PROUD of the work I did with the various companies on both ORSOS and MAC (AAC nowadays). We took pretty good software and made it world-class software. There was some drama (Those Wednesday 11 am meetings with Development aged me) until we got a good process down. Finding defects, getting them fixed, telling the client, that was so rewarding and at times, really fun. And I loved traveling onsite with many of you, doing FDA audits, though I spent more time in Toledo, Ohio, Vero Beach, Florida, and Hutchinson, Kansas than was good for me. Also, who could forget the Interact days? I attached a zip file of my favorite pictures from Per-Se’s old Interact from 2006.

I am leaving with a ton of memories. Thank you for all the joys and sorrows of the medical software world.

And this is me, in 2018, at my last day. The dream has become a reality.