High school class - English Composition. First assignment - write a short story. My grade - A+ with praise. Since then I've wanted to write a novel. A career and family obligations got in the way, but the desire to write that book hung on. I wrote magazine and tech-related articles. That was satisfying, to a degree, but could not satisfy like a novel. Finally, during a period spent recuperating from a medical issue, time was available. I wrote until a tall, neat, stack of paper sat on my desk. I titled those pages "Contaminated."