Suck it up. This is the life you chose for yourself, so buck up and deal.

Also, as an author, character has always been what I'm most interested in - much more so than plot or setting, although those are good things too.

hi, puppy." she's not a puppy. She's a girl," Nancy's mother says. Nancy pats me and says, "Good puppy. Nice puppy." When he mother bends down to pull her away, she wraps both arms around my legs and wails. "No! My puppy!

They're not chicks. They're ducks.

Hey. What is it that famous person said? 'It'll all work out in the end, and if it doesn't, that means it's not the end yet'?

If she did see, I hoped she' be amazed. Amazed and thankful, because without even asking, she'd received a genuine autograph from a genuine girl from Atlanta. Not just any girl, but a girl who was, frankly, a pretty big deal. A girl who was me.

Kids are smart. Knowledge is power. Let them figure things out. Don't turn into that grown-up who they won't come to.