I had hoped to use this quote from Ben Greenman’s new book What He’s Poised to Do in my forthcoming review the Miami Herald–alas, the short space I’m allotted wouldn’t allow it so I’m shining a spotlight on it here. It makes me think about how what (and how) you write can be the first and only impression you make, and can stoke the fires of love–if you’re lucky.

“We wrote to each other. He wrote more often, and though he was unpracticed at it—he spelled about every third word wrong, and his punctuation was a form of improvisation—it made me love him more, because I saw how I could improve matters.”

–From “Barn”, in What He’s Poised to Do, Harper Perennial, 2010