To Say More, Is To Say Less.

Entertain, Yes. That Goes Without Saying. But A Good Writer Does That Automatically, It's Built Into The Machine. Telling A Thumpingly Good, Mesmerizing Story Is What One Does Without Question. But Beyond That, Any Writer Worth His/her Hire Knows That All Writing, One Way Or Another, Is Subversive. It Is Guerrilla Warfare Against The Status Quo.

Anyone Who Can Not Write Should.

There Is No Nobler Chore In The Craft Of Writing Than Holding Up The Mirror Of Reality And Turning It Slightly, So We Have A New And Different Perception Of The Commonplace, The Everyday, The 'normal,' The Obvious. People Are Reflected In The Glass. The Fantasy Situation Into Which You Thrust Them Is The Mirror Itself. And What We Are Shown Should Illuminate And Alter Our Perception Of The World Around Us. Failing That, You Have Failed Totally.

Y Is For Yggdrasil. The Legendary Nordic Ash Tree With Its Three Roots Extending Into The Lands Of Mortals, Giants, And Niflheim, The Land Of Mist, Grows In Wisconsin. Legend Has It That When The Tree Falls, The Universe Will Fall. Next Wednesday, The State Highway Commission Comes Through That Empty Pasture With A Freeway.

I Have But Nothing To Say To Young Girls. They're Fine To Look At, In The Way I Would Look At A Case Filled With Shang Dynasty Glazes, But Expecting To Carry On A Conversation With The Average Teen-aged Young Lady Is Akin To Reading Voltaire To A Cage Filled With Chimpanzees. I'm Certain They Would Feel The Same Alienation For Me. I Can Live With That Knowledge.