Years ago I took a 2nd writing course at Everett Community College called ENG 102 Research Paper. The main point was to pick an American Icon and write about them. I initially chose Noam Chomsky because he was alive and I have many of his books. I sent him an email and we conversed for a couple of days, but I decided not to write about a living person. I then settled on one of my five favorite writers: Ernest Hemingway.

In class we had to tour the library and discover all the useful features of using a library. Then we had to present who we were intending to write about and when it got to me I said, “Ernest Hemingway, but I don’t want to use the library.” Riley Dwyer asked how many Ernest Hemingway books I had and after answering 156, she said there were only about 112 that Ernie had penned at all so she said I didn’t have to use the library at all.

That paper is still on this blog and it is called Ernest Hemingway: Man of Contrasts.

At the end of class, Riley Dwyer recommended that I finish my BA and to set my sights on going to the Iowa Writer’s Workshop at the University of Iowa.

Maybe someday is still my best answer.