Charles Dickens' David Copperfield

When was I NOT a writer? Those handwritten novels when I was growing up in Indianapolis, Indiana, don't count‚ I suppose. Or all the copy I wrote for yearbooks and newspapers at my various schools – Broad Ripple H.S.‚ Mount Holyoke College‚ Oxford University. The point is‚ nobody paid me to write until 1977. A brief year in the nonprofit realm in Washington D.C.‚ then I moved to New York City‚ where the beige steel cubicles of Scholastic Inc. beckoned. After several years of knocking around the magazine business – writing first for kids‚ then for adults‚ then for (shudder!) corporate execs –– I migrated to the book world‚ becoming executive editor of Fodor's Travel Guides. A corner office at last! Except . . . I wasn't writing anymore. So‚ in 1992‚ I went back to square one and started a freelance career. Travel books‚ culinary essays‚ movie reviews‚ mystery novels‚ study guides‚ rock criticism – I've given it all a whirl. I still live in New York with my husband and three children. Source: [Holly A. Hughes](