I Grew Up In Seattle, But I

I'm A Hypocrite, Of Course, And I Live With That, But I Live.

He Decided Then That He Would Love Her Forever No Matter What Came To Pass. It Was Not So Much A Matter Of Deciding As Accepting The Inevitability Of It. It Made Him Feel Better, Though He Felt Perturbed, Too, Worried That This Kiss Was Wrong. But From His Point Of View, At Fourteen Years Old, Their Love Was Entirely Unavoidable. It Had Started On The Day They'd Clung To His Glass Box And Kissed In The Sea, And Now It Must Go On Forever. He Felt Certain Of This.

I Have Traveled The Entire State And Spent A Lot Of Time Out Of Doors. So I Have Known The Landscape Of The Columbia Basin For Quite A While, And I Have Had This Strong Feeling About It For Many Years.

I Was Aware That There Is An Expectation That Writers Inevitably Falter At This Stage, That They Fail To Live Up To The Promise Of Their First Successful Book, That The Next Book Never Pleases The Way The Prior One Did. It Simply Increased My Sense Of Being Challenged.

A Literary Achievement Of The Highest Order.