I always wanted to be a writer but was unwilling until my middle fifties to make a fool of myself. A 12 year long Dickensian schooling experience, that horrifies all who hear about it, but delights all who survived it, has fed my imagination and stoked my innate irreverence. A. Conan Doyle, A. Christie, P. O'Brien, O'Henry, Aristotle, Bacon and The Bard: all these have been swirled into a soup in which I happily simmer. But it was James A. Michener who sat with me for an hour once long ago and told me his story that seemed to make mine possible. I am fascinated with how people organize more...
