As a freelance writer I'd be asked to become an expert for various magazines on any subject whether food or wine or history or the life span of veterinarians. I was completely unschooled in any of these things.

I wanted to be a teacher. I love children so I wanted to deal with children. Then I wanted to be a veterinarian. But by the age of ten or eleven when I opened my mouth and said 'Oh God what's this?' I kind of knew teaching and being a veterinarian were gonna have to wait.