As for writing, that's a cruel hard business. Unless you're very lucky it'll break your heart.
Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American IconoclastMen and women are hard ore, we do not go to slag in a mere few seasons of forge.
This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western MindI water my driveway, and I drive a hard bargain to work (it gets great gas mileage).
This is the best book I've ever written, and it still sucks