Thank you very much for the kind word about the 'Lewis and Clark' poem. It took me a long time to discover the subtle (but immense) difference between a heartache and genuine loss.

I would have written to you privately with an idea -- since you're The Word Girl -- but I don't know how. Intellectually, I understand that some feel the need to distance themselves with psuedonyms but I'm too old for such things. I quit publishing under my own name 20 years ago, but I've decided to go the rest of the way without a mask -- and without the safety net the mask brings with it.

My idea was simply this: since you're The Word Girl and since you seem to want original short fiction, you might could have some fun assigning topics or situations you think worthy of attention and turn certain folks loose. 'Hagen,' for instance is an extremely talented writer and he's truly prolific. Smart as a whip, with a scalpel-edged sense of humor when he unleashes it.

If you wanted a very brief short story about, say, a crestfallen man returning from the Peace Corps, or fistfighting, or discovering that your son's day care teacher is an old lover, well: you'd get two radically different takes on whatever the subject in short order. 'Hagen" can write reams in his fucking sleep. So can I. I think it would be an amusing conceit.

Plus, we've always got QKRgirl to provide us with dazzling visuals if we're too lazy to do them on our own.

If it helps, my e-mail address is GuyNealWilliams@BellSouth.net.

I'd

I stand unafraid of everything except my own press. The day care teacher was a one night stand, though, just a flirt and a squirt 'neath her skirt, nothing more. The assignment sounds like a dandy, but I warn you: Mr Weeyums is a better writer than anybody.

It's hard enough pretending to be an editor; so now you want me to pretend to be a creative writing teacher, too?

By the way, The Word Girl is a play on a 1980's English pop song written by a semioticist.

If you become the creative writing teacher, could Mr. Weeyums be the kid in the corner with the sugar cone on his head? It'd be a nice change. And was the pop song by the fellow who did Semiotic City, the b-side to Let's Go Paisley?

The song is by Scritti Politti; I don't know who did "Let's Go Paisley."

And Mr. Weeyums can wear anything on his head he wants. But if I have to be the teacher, I won't call him Mr.

Best leave it as a sugar cone; he's a mean waffler. And he won't answer to Mizz Weeyums since he's easily confused. Right now, he's lost on a mountain with too many womenfolk. Anyway, what's next?