James Clemens’ books are everywhere. They are at Borders. They are at Barnes & Noble. They are even at the Hornet Bookstore. He is a national bestselling author.

And he lives in Sacramento.

From the comfort of his home, he tries to finish his latest book while one hand squeaks a toy for his dog.

Life seems hectic. Publishers are pushing for new manuscripts. He has three conferences lined up this week, all in different cities. To top it off, the dog is hungry. However, Clemens just continues his work, a slight smile on his face. He enjoys this type of hectic life.

Maybe the air of calm comes from the fact that this career is not nearly as hectic as his old profession ?” running his own veterinary clinic.

Starting in the mid-1990s, Clemens was not known as James Clemens, he was known as Dr. Jim Czajkowski, or Dr. Jim for short.

He had spent 10 years getting his degree in veterinary medicine and he was putting it to use in his own practice in South Sacramento.

He dabbled in writing while working at the clinic, and had been since he was a kid. However, the clinic always came first. His weekends were busy. His weekdays were busier. All he had time for was the clinic.

“It’s all-consuming,” he said, “I wanted my weekends off.”Soon after hiring more staff Czajkowski finally had time to begin serious work on his writing. He wrote his first book, a thriller titled “Subterranean”, under the pen name James Rollins. He submitted it over and over again, having the manuscript rejected 50 times before it got picked up.It took some unexpected help from a fellow author, Terry Brooks, whom Czajkowski had spotted at the writing conference he was attending. His manuscript had been submitted for judging in a contest of sorts, and Brooks was one of the judges.

“He told me he had liked it so much that he had given it to his publisher,” Czajkowski said, a sense of awe in his voice. “Right after the conference, my agent called me to tell me that there were now three publishing houses bidding for my book.”

Before “Subterranean” even hit the shelves, two of Czajkowski’s other books were picked up by Del Rey, a publisher of science fiction and fantasy. These two books were the start of his bestselling “wit’ch” series under his other pen name, James Clemens. Both those books made it to the shelves before “Subterranean.”

By this time, Czajkowski had sold the clinic in order to concentrate more on his writing. After he sold the two books under the Clemens pen name, he left the clinic.

“It was just time to go,” he said. “I wanted to try to have writing as my paycheck and veterinary medicine as my hobby, not the other way around.”

He has made that dream come true. With the rest of the “wit’ch” books hitting bestseller status, along with his thrillers under the Rollins pen name, he can now stay at home devote his time to writing.

“I volunteer at the SPCA to keep my skills up,” he said about his now-secondary veterinary profession.

His latest book, “Map of Bones,” has been compared to the bestselling “Da Vinci Code.”

“I was told by a Borders shopper that the book was a cross between the ‘Da Vinci Code’ and Indiana Jones,” Czajkowski said with a laugh. “I still don’t know whether to take that as an insult or a compliment.”