if you've read and enjoyed Glen Cook's series The Black Company, as I did (so much) did you know he was in the Navy from 1962-72, then began his writing career while working at a GM assembly line?

Cook was born in New York City and served in the United States Navy from 1962 to 1972 and specifically was attached, for a time, to a Marine Force Recon unit, the 3rd Marine Battalion.

Cook left active duty, "a month before [the unit] shipped out to Viet Nam".

He later worked his way through college. Cook began to write in earnest while working for General Motors at an auto assembly plant in a job which was "hard to learn, but [involved] almost no mental effort", writing as many as three books per year.

Cook wrote The Black Company, a novel published by Tor Fantasy, in May 1984 beginning a gritty fantasy series following an elite mercenary unit through several decades of its history. As of 2016, it comprises the novels published in three subseries 1984–85, 1989–90, and 1996–2000, plus recent short fiction.

 It has become something of a cult classic, especially among current and former members of the military. When asked about the series' popularity among soldiers, Cook replied: "The characters act like the guys actually behave. It doesn't glorify war; it's just people getting on with the job. The characters are real soldiers. They're not soldiers as imagined by people who've never been in the service. That's why service guys like it."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Cook

"Most of my adult life I worked for GM in various capacities, at various facilities. I'm retired now."  https://www.sfsite.com/10a/gc209.htm