My first "published" book was at the age of six. For a first grade spelling project, I wrote a short story about a girl named Alexandra and her cat, Shadow, who got lost in a rather extensive garden. I took over half of the school's multi-purpose room to edit and organize my story, took it home, typed it up in a program called The Amazing Writing Machine, drew some artwork, printed it out on hot pink paper, stuffed it into plastic sleeves, bound it together with multi-colored yarn, and presented it to my teacher/principal. It's still in the school's library and is one of only two more...
