It's not such a big step from pictures to writing.
And that's how it started out for me. I've illustrated more Western book covers than I care to mention and been doing it for a long time. No hardship, I hasten to add, I love the genre and have since a kid, although originally I made my name painting the cover art for other people, now at least, I manage to create covers for my own books.
A long-term closet writer, only comparatively recently, with a family grown and the availability of self-publishing have I managed to be able to write and get my stories out there.
As I did when illustrating, research counts a lot and has inspired many of my Westerns and Thrillers to have a basis in historical fact or at least weave their tale around the seeds of factual content.
Having such a visual background, mostly it's a matter of describing the pictures I see in my head and translating them to the written page. I guess that's why one of my early four-star reviewers described the book like a 'Western movie, fast paced and full of action.'
I enjoy writing them; I hope folks enjoy reading the results.