I was four when I started writing stories. Mom said I would take a piece of college ruled paper, fold it in half, turn it sideways, draw a picture on the front (usually of a boy's face), write a title beneath that (something like The Boy ), and then open it to write the story on the two inner "pages" (something like The boy cried love Mom ), and then present it to her as the book I'd written for her. She kept each one. I counted them a couple weeks ago. There are four dozen s

/ SHELDON LEE COMPTON is an author with Cowboy Jamboree Press, publishes the Poverty House collective, teaches in the MFA program at...