The image I had was very clear, and so in that way The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane began like other books.
If I am just home and writing, I become very strange.
You are the ever-expanding universe to me
I will be brave, thought Despereaux. I will try to be brave like a knight in shining armour. I will be brave for the Princess Pea.
I thought I was going nowhere. Now I can see there was a pattern.
My father leaving the family shaped who I was and how I looked at the world. By the same token, my father telling me fairy tales that he had made up shaped me profoundly, too.