I remember when I was about 10 and I thought that I was soooooo creative. I entered a contest based on what kind of captions I could give the pictures presented on the forms. Writing in a ballpoint pen had it's drawbacks, and I didn't put much thought into it. I slopped down some creative sentences and mailed it off to the publishers. Six to Eight weeks later a response arrived in the mail. Somehow, I "won".

In fact, the first sentence of the letter that was sent to me was "For one so young you have done so well". Pretty Zen, right?

Upon further inspections, the envelope also contained enrollment application forms so I could enter their "courses". "Winning" apparently meant "getting on the mailing list".

"Dad, this isn't for real, is it?" I asked him, holding the letter up to his face.

"Nope, I don't believe it is. Sorry."

And that was the untimely end of my career as a writer.

So I turned my attention to theatre, wrote a play or two, got married and ran a marathon. Now I am having fun reading all your fabulous works.