 Baker 's lifelong ambition was to write . Upon graduating from UCLA , he spent approximately five years writing Hollywood screenplays in the early 1980s , a process he hated . While financially successful , he was frustrated that his work was not being produced . " I felt like a door @-@ to @-@ door salesman going to all these [ story ] pitch meetings ... [ filled with ] <unk> , hideous <unk> " . He became discouraged and disillusioned , and turned his attention to novels . 
