From outward appearances, writing books is not a swashbuckling career choice.

Writers of fiction and nonfiction gems share one thing — a lot of alone time. They type into computers or draft words on yellow legal pads. They rub eyes after hours of editing. They occasionally nod off as they sink into dusty records in obscure archives or get lost in spreadsheets. For fun, they may make site visits to get the feel of places that later appear in books.

If, however, you could peek inside the heads of people writing books, you would find a lot of excitement as they paint scenes with words, craft the measured pace of interesting tales, develop characters and work ideas from interesting abstracts into dramatic stories.

With more than 80 of the world’s top writers in the Holy City from Nov. 7 to

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