This is the first of five blogs posted in February. The others will reappear sequentially in the coming weeks.

From earliest memory my mother said that I would write the Great American Novel - not should, not could, but would. I'd laugh.

She'd laugh.

Over time I noted that, beneath her smile, she was serious. Yet, no endeavor could have been nearer to my heart or further from my reality than that of being an author. Our lively back and forth on this subject continued until her death in March 198