To Be Honest, The Only Thing I

After Spending Most Of Her Life Scanning The Horizon For Slights And Threats, Genuine And Imagined, She Knew The Real Threat To Her Happiness Came Not From The Dot In The Distance, But From Looking For It. Expecting It. Waiting For It. And In Some Cases, Creating It. Her Father Had Jokingly Accused Her Of Living In The Wreckage Of Her Future. Until One Day She'd Looked Deep Into His Eyes And Saw He Wasn't Joking. He Was Warning Her.

He Tried To Let Her Know It Would Be All Right. Eventually. Life Wouldn't Always Be This Painful. The World Wouldn't Always Be This Brutal. Give It Time, Little One. Give It Another Chance. Come Back.

A Journalist Also Needs To Be Disciplined, And So Do I. I Am, Essentially, Lazy. Without Discipline I'd Be Just A Mass Of Gummy Bears On The Sofa Instead Of On Book Tour With My Eighth Novel.

To Be Honest, The Only Thing I Ever Really Wanted To Be Was A Writer - Since I Read 'charlotte's Web' As A Child.

How Much More Courage It Took To Be Kind Than To Be Cruel.