My writing life began with a scam: I cribbed a story I read in my grandma's copy of the old Saturday Evening Post and told my father I had written it myself. It was something about Wall Street and brokers' dirty deals. At age 8, I had no idea what 'Wall Street' was or what 'brokers' did. But it had won a prize and I wanted to please my father, a pharmacist by day who sat nights in the dusty back room of his store writing plays that were never produced. I can imagine his response, but what he actually said is lost to my memory, probably deliberately. But it set me on my course to more true and original writings of many genres -- fiction, features, memoirs, book reviews, as well as editing, book doctoring, advertising, agenting and promotions.