Here we are - despite the delays, the confusion, and the shadows en route - at last, or for the moment, where we always intended to be.

There you are, diligently swimming a straight line, minding the form of your strokes, when you look up and see, always a shock, the currents you can't even feel have pulled you off course.

Nothing teaches great writing like the very best books do. Yet, good teachers often help students cross that bridge, and I have to say that I had a few extraordinary English teachers in high school whom I still credit for their guidance.

My publisher is generous with deadlines, which are never set in stone. Some writers need that pressure, but I am more productive when there's less panic.

But things change, of course, and so do the ways in which people see themselves.

Here we are - despite the delays, the confusion, and the shadows en route - at last, or for the moment, where we always intended to be.

When it comes to life, we spin our own yarn, and where we end up is really, in fact, where we always intended to be.