I heard that a story I wrote a long time ago will be published in Heater magazine. Becky's Fan was a way for me to feel better about the death of Rebecca Schaeffer, which sounds selfish as I write this down. I guess it was...is.

I've had people die who were important to me, including a stepson I was just getting to know. But to raise a daughter, and one that seemed so kind and good, I can't fathom the pain her parents fell to this day.

Rebecca died in 1989, gunned down by an insane fan. Her death helped to change things, like the Driver's Privacy Protection Act. Her killer used DMV records to locate her. The changes in the aftermath are good, but not worth the price.

I wrote this in 1989. Over this past year, I've started to write every day now. I always thought about writing, but the things we think about we never do so I decided last September to start writing. I came across Becky's Fan while going over old stories and after cleaning it up, I started sending it out. Heater accepted the story and it will be out later this year.

I've had a few other things published this year, but this one is special. One, because it is something I wrote a while ago that needed my forty year old self to finish and two, because I think it shows how writing can help anyone. I don't write to be famous. I write to tell stories and to work things out.

I didn't know Rebecca, but her story touched me and I hope others fell the same way.