I'm 37 years old and have become, by accident, an independent author with two books self-published for Kindle and in paperback. 'Oblivious' which is the collection of short stories I developed here on Webook and 'The Haiku Diary' also developed here.

I've had two academic pieces published (both with very long titles):

"American Morality and Social Mechanics: the Meaning of Nothingness in the prose and poetry of Charles Bukowski"

"The Historical Present: Notions of History, Time and Cultural Lineage in the Writing of Richard Brautigan"

As of December last year, I'm officially no longer a frustrated writer. Despite never landing that publishing deal, I went and did it myself anyway and couldn't be happier that I did. I don't make any money from writing, but it isn't really about that for me anyway so I don't really care. I have found a readership (of sorts) and have met some other great indie writers going it alone.

Oh, and despite all my reservations, I'm now blogging. You can find the inner workings of my mutilated mind here: http://neilschiller.wordpress.com/