“I retired from a twenty-year federal career at 47 due to a rare neuromuscular disease — LGMD, titin gene variant — that was only correctly diagnosed because of the Human Genome Project led by the National Institutes of Health

At 50, with no publishing connections, no platform, and no literary history, I started writing to explain the government that saved my life to the country that is dismantling it. I was starting from nothing. Except perhaps my work experience in government. And it turned out that was everything.”