James Pattersons First Job Was in a Hospital Psych Ward

James Patterson's First Job Was in a Hospital Psych Ward Writers need good stories to stoke their fiction. What better way to get material than a crazy first job? For Reuters’ “First Jobs” series, we talked to a few successful American authors about the jobs that got them started on the path to literary stardom. James Patterson Author: Along Came a Spider, 1st To Die, Kiss the Girls First job: Hospital psych aide “I had grown up in a small town with not a lot of exposure to the world, and then I got a job as a psych aide at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. It was a real chance to grow up and meet different kinds of people. All sorts of windows and doors started opening up for me. Video Player is loading.Play VideoPlayMuteCurrent Time  0:00/Duration  0:00Loaded: 0%Stream Type  LIVESeek to live, currently playing liveLIVERemaining Time  -0:00  Playback Rate1xChaptersChaptersDescriptionsdescriptions off, selectedCaptionscaptions and subtitles off, selectedAudio TrackFullscreenThis is a modal window.Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.TextColorWhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyOpaqueSemi-TransparentBackgroundColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyOpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparentWindowColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyTransparentSemi-TransparentOpaqueFont Size50%75%100%125%150%175%200%300%400%Text Edge StyleNoneRaisedDepressedUniformDropshadowFont FamilyProportional Sans-SerifMonospace Sans-SerifProportional SerifMonospace SerifCasualScriptSmall CapsReset restore all settings to the default valuesDoneClose Modal DialogEnd of dialog window.PlayMuteCurrent Time  0:00/Duration  0:00Loaded: 0%Stream Type  LIVESeek to live, currently playing liveLIVERemaining Time  -0:00  Playback Rate1xFullscreen “My job was basically to talk to people. At first I worked maximum security, where sometimes the patients could get violent, and you had to take them to the ‘Quiet Room’. Then I started working the adolescent floors, where I met a lot of kids with drug issues or parent problems. I was like their big brother. “The only place I didn’t like working was the one ward filled with people who had lobotomies. I found that very difficult. “That hospital was also where I started reading like crazy. Often I had the 11 pm to 7 am shift, and I would just read, read, read â€" I got up to a novel a day, that I bought from used bookstores in Cambridge. Soon after that I started scribbling stories. “The poet Robert Lowell was a patient there once in a while. A few of the other aides were English majors, so we would just sit in his room for hours and he would talk about his poetry. Some nights I would come home from work and feel like I was flying, because I was so exhilarated from moments like that.” Jonathan Safran Foer Author: Here I Am, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Everything Is Illuminated First job: Jewelry store “I worked behind the counter at my dad’s jewelry store in a Maryland mall. I also replaced watch batteries, which sounds mundane but is a actually bizarrely complicated thing to do. I remember I had a big crush on a girl at the time, and I used to etch her initials into everybody’s watches. “I also sold jewelry, and I had a whole sales pitch worked out. If a customer wondered if they really needed something, I would say, ‘The real question is: Do you want a family heirloom for your children or grandchildren?’ I was too young to realize what a jerk I was. “That place was a real Petri dish of humanity, a very rich psychological environment. There is a certain kind of person who can sell things, and the people who had been there for decades enjoyed teaching me everything they knew. “We even had a code word if we ever felt threatened behind the counter: ‘Mercury.’ Thankfully I never had to use it.” T.C. Boyle Author: The Harder They Come, When the Killing’s Done, World’s End First job: Clothing stockboy “My first paying job was when I was 16, as a senior in high school. A friend of mine had been working at a men’s clothing store, and they needed extra people for the holiday season. This was in a shopping center in my hometown of Peekskill, New York. “I had many problems in those days, one of which was: How could I possibly get any girl in my life? Thankfully I made enough salary at this nice clothing store to buy some cool stuff for myself, like pointy-toed shoes and skinny pants and big sweaters. “Down in the stockroom, my friend used to draw comic faces and write messages for me, and I would respond. In that graffiti we would make fun of the boss, and his wife, and his children. So soon after I was called in by the boss and fired â€" which of course I richly deserved. I had no interest in actually working.”