I've been telling stories ever since I was a kid. Whether it was writing myself into fantastical battles with my friend John in my grandmother's basement or telling my parents tall tales about exploding squirrels I've always told stories. I wrote my first play when I was in first grade, we actually produced it and I found the tape a few years back to prove it. Man was it awesome. I mean you probably wouldn't like it but there were dragons and I was a prince and there was a princess to save... who doesn't want that to happen in real life? I mean honestly, that's why I write. I do it because there's a part of me that yearns for something more than what I can see; what is available to me on a daily basis. I want to be a part of a grand adventure where I'm the hero and just make it through by the skin of my teeth. The real-life situations where that happens are never so glorious as to provide the kind of satisfaction my stories can. And so I write. Isn't that why we read? To escape, to put ourselves in someone else's shoes and see the world through their eyes? We're all looking to live vicariously through someone else (except for the rare few among us who might actually be content with life). Perhaps we just like to be entertained, but there's something much deeper and more real in a good book than simple entertainment. We extend ourselves into and through the words to become something greater than we already were. Good books can change us.