I finished writing my first novel, Whitney, on 10/26/11, when I submitted it to the New Rivers Press MVP contest, a contest it would go on to win. But trying to figure out how long it took me to write Whitney? That's a different story.
 
I don't even know when I started it.
 
Out of that convoluted process came the desire to approach The Next Thing differently. And that proved to be a wise choice, because Fatherhood has impacted my writing habits in ways I never would have imagined.