Written back in 1997. My comments from back then:

I usually don't think of myself as an author. If I called myself an author, that would imply that I come up with my own ideas--that I think my own characters up, for example. And sometimes, I believe that's true. But most of the time, I can't shake the suspicion that the characters think themselves up. Then they show up on my doorstep--probably because the people on the list who can actually write are already booked solid--and wait for me to do something intelligent with them. So I feel kind of bad when a story misfires; I feel like I've let the character down.

Greywing showed up a few weeks ago. This is the best home I've been able to come up with for him so far. It's far from my best--it has pretty much every "wrong thing to do in a short story" from our recent discussion on the list. Please don't hold it against him.