As Elmore Leonard Says, I Write To

If I Am Just Home And Writing, I Become Very Strange.

Life Was So Short; So Many Beautiful Things Slipped Away.

The Words, "i Have A Dog Named Winn-dixie," Popped Into My Head In The Voice Of A Small Girl With A Southern Accent. I'd Been Writing Long Enough At That Point To Know Not To Ignore That Kind Of Red Flag. The Next Day, I Put Aside What I'd Been Working On, Started With That One Sentence, And Followed It All The Way To The End.

To Me The Book Is Like Having A Kid. I Have To Let It Go Out In The World, And Great Things Will Happen. Maybe They Won't, But It Has To Keep On Moving.

The Shapes Arranged Themselves Into Words, And The Words Spelled Out A Delicious And Wonderful Phrase: Once Upon A Time.