This is, of course, the opposite advice than is often given to young writers. But it occurred to me from a chance comment by someone on my email list that this is exactly what I do—in a way. I don’t write from ignorance. Perhaps it would be better to say that I write what I want to learn about.

Write what you want to learn about!

In looking back over my oeuvre (to use a pretentious word, tongue firmly in ...