Very interesting that he didn't become a full-time author until 20 years after his book was published. I'm always interested in how successful people became that way.<p>Mr. Patterson was born in 1947, published his first book at 29 years old (1976) and didn't become a full time writer until 49 years old (1996). He's been writing an average of 2 novels per year since then (!) and is getting more prolific with age. Considering that some people never get around to "finishing their novel", I find these data points amazing.<p>What are you doing today that will be news worthy 20 years from now?