Newspapermen can't be novelists? Okay...make it two years. But no more!!!
There have been exceptions, some of whom have churned out some pretty good yarns [former Reuters and BBC newsie Freddy Forsyth and Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Hunter's books make a pretty fair read.
And I once pitched an idea about a possible early-days FBI agent's involvement in the Lindbergh kidnapping, though it's not hit print.
Besides, I've come to the conclusion reached after 35 years in the racket that the real stories are more fantastic than the fictional ones, if usually not as tidy or neatly concluded.