A retired engineer/marketing person who wrote my first book when I was twelve (yes, self-published, one copy, no blurbs).
My roots are a dozen or so short stories published in an eclectic set of magazines, all leading to five+ spent on the novel.
Arcane engineering and power industry stuff.
A shoulder? The lessons learned over twenty some years of toiling away at this art form?
How about She Writes (where I'm literally the odd man out)?