Meeting The Master

I love to read and I do a fair amount of it.

I also like mysteries. Not the kind you read like Agatha Christie particularly, but real ones. I was always very good at playing Clue, or Electronic Detective. I just have a nose for ferreting out what other people often miss.

And...and this is a pretty big part of who I am....I like it when things in my life turn out to be romantic adventures. I don't mean love trysts, but events that turn out to be connected in unexpected wonderful ways.

Imagine corresponding with someone in a chat room and enjoying their company. Eventually the two of you share regular emails and then that person gives me a link where I can read some of his anonymous work. I do just that and am enchanted by many of his stories. They are so much better than 99% of the other stories I read there. They have a particular style and charm that flows through them, not because I know this person, but because I like the work.

In return he reads and critiques some of the stories I have written.

One day we are discussing authors whose works we both love and the name of someone I have never heard of comes up. I ask my friend to recommend one of this new-to-me author's books and he suggests two of them. Of course I go straight to Amazon.com and look some of these books up.

Now the wonder begins to bud. There are books on Amazon where you can "peek inside" and I take advantage of these. It is like getting a tiny taste, but I realize these have a familiar after taste. Something about them sparks feelings of deja vu, so I go back and read them again.

One morning I wake up with one of those aha moments and rush to read some of my friend's anonymous stories again.

Could it be? Is it possible?

I dare not break this spell, this dream come true, because it would be like all fairy tales. The minute the maiden opens the box, or the hero takes a bite of the apple, or turns around to stare into the face first hand -- the enchantment crumbles and disappears like dust in the desert of once upon a times.