We’ve had more rain than usual this year in Arizona. And that means mosquitos.

So, I went online to see just how long these pesky critters might be hanging around—and making my life miserable. 

I googled Life Expectancy of the Mosquito. From what I read, it looked like they might be around for awhile.

But that got me thinking …

What is the life expectancy of an author? I’m not referring to the number of years they might live. Just how many years they will write… the total number of years they will practice the craft of writing?

I went to Google. I found information on how many books the average writer reads per year, how long it takes for the average writer to write a book, how much money the average writer makes per year, the average daily word count for an author—in other words, all kinds of information. But I didn’t find any information about how many years they write, on average.

So, I can only speculate that authors write as long as it is profitable for them, as long as they have interest in the craft, until they run out of ideas, as long as the circumstances of their lives don’t change and require their time to be spent differently.

Asking a few authors this question, most said one of these:

“As long as I can.”

“As long as people keep buying my books.”

“As long as I keep waking up each day with a fire within me that can only be quenched by writing.”

“Until I no longer enjoy writing.”

 As for me?

 Like the mosquito, I just may be hanging around for awhile.