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Author Jason Mott perfectly exemplifies the American work ethic.

He holds two degrees from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington; bachelors for fiction, and masters in poetry. With career opportunities limited as a writer after school, he took a job at a Verizon Wireless call center to make ends meet while continuing to write poetry and fiction.

In 2010, inspiration struck. He had a dream where, upon returning home from work one day, his deceased mother was sitting at his kitchen table, and that he was able to have a conversation with her. He used the dream to write his first novel, “The Returned,” about deceased people who mysteriously return from the grave.

Four years later, producers at ABC have used it to create the hit TV series “Resurrection.” Host David Boze talked to Mott about his work ethic, and how honest hard work took him from a call center to being named by Entertainment Weekly as one of the 10 people to watch in Hollywood.

“What was your schedule like? My theory is, life is lived in the little moments,” Boze said.

“What I would do is write before work and then again after work. Every six months at Verizon, we would go through a whole schedule change,” Mott explained. “I also learned to take a notebook to work with me; if I had an idea, I would notate that throughout the day. With writing, you can walk away at any time, and the page will never pull you back.”

“What kind of story did you want it to be? Is it hopeful, is it religious, is it a horror film – what kind of story do you ultimately want to tell?” Boze asked.

“With the novel it involves all of that – there are no horror aspects. What happens when you lose someone and then you march forward in your life? You have to decide who you are. By the time the novel concludes, my hope is readers walk away with a sense of hopefulness, with a sense the moment you have is important. That’s ultimately what the novel hopes to achieve,” Mott said.