Sushiwritr
I joined the eWorld Fiction Writers in late 1995, when we were still meeting on eWorld, and the group itself didn't really have a name. I was honored to receive one of my first written critiques from group founder Jo Gilbert, who was then an Associate Editor at Writer's Digest magazine. Looking back at my awful beginner's prose, I am eternally thankful for the patience of those early group members.
I guess I ended up in charge of the group through sheer cussedness; I just outlasted the rest of them. Of course, many of our alumni are now preoccupied with the varied forms of great success.
Why Sushiwritr? On eWorld my screen name was SushiTrucker. That's because I used to drive a sushi supply delivery truck, providing "the makings" for sushi bars and Japanese markets all over northern California. Back when the eWorld Fiction Writers moved to AOL, that screen name proved one character too long for their system. A shorter variant was blocked by AOL's unimaginative computers . . .
The eWorld Writers hold occasional themed contests. This story was written in February 1997 for the second Contest, which had the theme "Secrets." It came in third out of eight entries. (Since then we've gotten a lot bigger and better, and I even managed to win once.)
