I took a sheet of paper, pristine and creamy, placed it just so, and dipped my quill, excitement thrumming in my fingers. I closed my eyes in reflex, then opened them again. Where ought I to begin? Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop. The line from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland drifted through my mind, and I smiled. Good advice, I supposed—but only if you happened to know where the beginning was, and I didn’t quite.
