What signs would you look for in a youngster to indicate that she might have the potential to become one of the country's most well‑known, most‑respected writers? That question was recently asked of the great and Legendary Mr. Christopherson about one of his most illustrious former students, Ms. Jenny L., who has just had her fifth best‑selling novel published. The great man's answer must serve as an illuminating glimpse into not only what are the characteristics of young, budding authors, but also into the mental characteristics of hard working, dedicated, legendary teachers everywhere, helping their students make dreams come true. (For wasn't it the famous Dr. S. Freud, psychologist extraordinaire, who stated that all legendary teachers attempt to make their own dreams come true through their students. On the other hand, others have deciphered the doctor's written statement, in the original complex, scrawled and nearly unintelligible German, to say that legendary teachers tend to dream of the day when they will be through with students altogether. Whatever!)

It seems that young Jenny was a busy little girl, with pencil or pen in hand at all times. The great teacher claims, during that wonderful winter of 1993-4's trimester of Creative Expressions, during which so many fine students were aimed toward the realization of their own dreams, young Jenny stood head and shoulders above the usual middle school crowd when it came to writing. Where the typical 8th grade girl (again, Dr. Freud has suggested that girls tend to be better writers than boys at this age, although some might argue that the doctor's typically garbled, hand‑written German statement may have actually used slightly different words, that is: not "Madchen” meaning "girl,” but rather "Magen," meaning "stomach"; not "Knabe," meaning "boy," but rather "Knast," meaning "grumble"; and not "Schreiben," meaning "write," but rather "Schreiten," meaning "walk," giving the statement a somewhat different meaning‑-something or other to do with walking around with a grumbling stomach) may be adept at writing small, simple‑minded notes to catch the interest of certain outstanding boys in class, young Jenny would produce multi‑page documents in which she poured out her very heart and soul.

Another indicator of this talented, hard‑working youngster's future centered around her gift for hard‑hitting, action packed graffiti. During that 1993-4 school year, young Jenny came fully up to stride in the creative graffiti department. Nary a wall survived her busy hand. When it came to wall‑work, where the general public was concerned (as opposed to the personal documents mentioned above), she certainly excelled in the area of message length, commonly producing full‑fledged epics, including a table of contents (indicating which building, room number, and wall any particular chapter could be found on). In addition, this young author was an exceptionally speedy writer, being able to scribble a new, 150,000 word story on recently cleaned walls in only three passing periods (approximately equivalent to an amazing time of twelve minutes)!

It seems that the Legendary Mr. Christopherson's major contribution to the future career of this fine writer came in the form of advice about what the content of her writing should be. She came to the great teacher one day, pencil twitching nervously in hand, said hand poised to blur into action, with a frustrated look on her face. She had that terrible affliction that haunts many‑an‑author, writer's block. So the great teacher after hearing her plea for help (demonstrating here again his uncanny gift of knowing exactly the appropriate thing to say in any given circumstance) instructed her to, "Simply look around and pick the first thing that catches your eye, no matter how trivial, then write about that.” She took this excellent advise to heart and made it her template for all future work.

Obviously, this explains how she came to write her first rather off‑beat best‑seller wherein the leading character is a paper clip. Only someone with Ms. L.'s incredible imagination could start with the premise that there could exist signifi­cant levels of "racial" hatred and harassment among the different sizes and shapes of paper clips, and then go on from there to construct a completely gripping, compelling novel of some 25,000 pages which gives us all the opportunity to see our own human short‑comings portrayed in the bent‑up world of those wonderful little metal clips.

Her next work turned out to be one of the most sensitive love stories ever written. Anyone who has read the book, "Ink Blots and Pencil Shavings," will never forget the torturous, doomed‑to‑failure relationship between the upper‑class fountain pen and her lover, the common wooden pencil. This great work follows them from first meeting in the stationary store to those final heart‑wrenching paragraphs of love lost as the sweet tempered "Miss Penny" ran out of ink, followed rapidly by "Woody's" suicidal bout with the pencil sharpener.

And of course, in her most recent effort, Ms. L. writes about shoes, giving us an incredible story to help us under­stand that everyone will someday grow old and get wrinkled, losing our color and vitality, and, more likely than not, be discarded into oblivion. The author takes us on an emotional trip starting with the joy of being new shoes and very desirable, then on to the stage of being useful and doing a good job as good footwear should, and then finally the wearing out and the being set aside in favor of newer shoes. But this novel has a happy ending. The main characters, a pair of shoes, leather loafers in fact, having given their all in the service of their owner, are finally, in a teary‑eyed act of remembrance, bronzed and hung over the mantle where they may serve as an inspiration for all future shoes to see.

It is plain to all that this fine author has taken her place in the highest ranks of writers who can bring us to realize human‑kind's relationship to this Earth and to each other.

Thanks, Ms. Jenny L.!