Write first book, get IBM clone

From 1983 to 1988, I had a simple Kaypro MS-DOS computer with a tiny green screen. I used it to write hundreds of magazine articles for money and, as it turned out, my first book.

My New York literary agent, Jim Trupin, took my Veronica Slate mystery proposal to editors.

One of them said, "Sounds like a fun project, but can Lary Crews write?"

Jim said, "The idea is finding favor, but you'll have to write the first book in the series." 

So, from 5 to 7 each morning, since I wrote nonfiction to make a living, I spent eight months writing Kill Cue. It was published to great critical acclaim in December 1988.

Because my signing bonus was $9,000, I also bought the IBM clone computer you see above.

Funny how life works.

My head's not on straight.

The operation that healed my cancer in 1983 was a radical neck dissection. 

It left me with a 15-inch scar on my neck's left side which makes me look like my head is not on straight. 

I also have numbness in my left ear, shoulder, and arm.

But getting to live forty additional years was worth it.

My first writer's office

 My first office with the Kaypro computer. 1983

Took it to work

I also took it to my night job at the radio station. 1983
 

1983 office

I got out of the hospital on July 4th, 1983, my cancer cured, so I began to create a writer's office with a Kaypro computer. (It was new but seemed the direction a writer should go.) I started querying magazines and found almost immediate success.

Career change to writing

While in the hospital awaiting my cancer surgery in 1983, I read a copy of Writer's Digest and decided, if I lived, to pursue a new career as a freelance writer. From 1969-1983 I wrote disposable nonfiction (you write it, read it, throw it away.) Now I'd be writing for magazines.

Computers: from Kaypro to HP laptops

I've been writing on computers since 1983. 

I started on a Kaypro MS-DOS machine with a 9-inch green screen from 1983-1988. 

When my first three books sold in 1989, I got an IBM Clone. 

Through the years I've worked on various Hewlett-Packard desktops until I switched to laptops in 2008. I've had several since then, all HP of course.