I used to write between lunch breaks at my corporate job. Now my income as a best-selling romantasy author supports my family

NYT bestselling author Brigid Kemmerer used to write books during lunch breaks while working in finance.

Brigid Kemmerer Brigid Kemmerer wrote books during lunch breaks while working in finance and raising three kids.

An NYT bestseller gave Kemmerer enough money to quit her corporate job in 2016.

Kemmerer said that as a full time writer, losing corporate stability can still feel scary.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Brigid Kemmerer, a New York Times bestselling author of young-adult and romantasy novels .

Kemmerer, based in Baltimore and now 48 years old, has worked as a full-time author for the past 10 years and has published at least two dozen books.

The essay has been edited for length and clarity.

I've wanted to be a writer since I was 12, when a librarian I knew published her first young-adult novel .

Until then, authors might as well have been movie stars.

Seeing a real person become one made writing feel like a possible career.

I started working in finance at 19 and eventually became a licensed stockbroker.

After selling my first novel in 2011, I continued working my day job while raising three children and writing whenever I could.

I wrote early in the morning, late at night, and during my lunch hour.

In 2016, I finally sold the book that allowed me to leave finance.