As I travel around promoting TARGETS OF DECEPTION, meeting people at book signings, interviews and talks, there is one subject that comes up which deserves to be addressed. Someone will approach me and diffidently confide that they have a book they are simply dying to write and then, as if railing against the wind, will declare that someday, damnit, they are going to get it written.

So here's the first piece of valuable information I can impart on this subject as a published author-EVERYONE has at least one book worth writing. EVERYONE has a story that's important enough for them to take the time to commit it to paper-or in this era, to some electronic format-and I believe everyone should.

It is the simple act of writing, that grueling, inspiring, lonely, exhilarating, frustrating and rewarding experience that makes it worthwhile for you to take the time to tell your story. It is an intimate relationship worthwhile having. So take an hour early each morning (as Julia Cameron so ably advocates in THE ARTIST'S WAY) or turn off the boob tube for an hour at night when you are about to watch that useless program you chose by default simply because there was nothing else worth seeing at the time. Use half of your lunch hour or set some time aside on the weekends. Whenever and wherever you can, DO IT, because I can assure you it is an enterprise you will never regret.

And don't begin by thinking that you have to create WAR AND PEACE. Just begin setting down your ideas and remembrances and see where the journey leads you. Whether it is a family saga, a thriller, a romance or-Heaven forbid-another romp through the world of vampires, there are things you will learn about yourself as you press ahead that you might not ever have otherwise known. And don't judge what you've done, don't get caught up reading what you've written, or sharing it so others have the chance to dissuade you, or compare yourself to those who have come before. As George V Higgins admonished in his book about the craft, WRITERS WRITE. The rest is a lot of applesauce you can do without. Tell your story, write as much as you can for as long as you can. Enjoy it. Let it become a secret covenant between you and yourself. And then, one day, you will look down and say, "I've done it!"

Your age doesn't matter. Create something for yourself and you may also be creating something you may someday share with your children. Your grandchildren. Your sisters and brothers. Your friends.

Start small, but think big. Let it go. Let your memories and imagination carry you away. And then, some time when you stop by to meet me somewhere, we can talk about your writing as well as mine.