An Asteroid

We writers sometimes talk about "pellets"–little rewards that keep us–like rats–happily running around our writerly treadmills. A good review is a pellet. An email from an enthusiastic reader is a pellet.

Last week, I got something so far beyond a pellet that one of my writing buddies called it an "asteroid." And indeed, it is cosmic and out there, and really wonderful, too.

I live in Iowa City, which is known as a literary town–the world-renowned Iowa Writers Workshop is here, and we have...