"I'd like your opinion of my painting." "It's worthless." "I know, but I'd like to hear it anyway." I am 69, and retired from a small business making cabinets and renovating houses. At present, I struggle to keep about 60 hives of bees alive and sell what honey I can get off them. I read a lot. Writing fiction is new for me - a way to incorporate new ideas into my thinking and reconsider old ones. I like the idea developed by Gerald Murnane that fictional characters can populate your mind and live on for you in a world parallel to this one. In stories, I like new facts, humor, clever phrasing, deep ideas. Can't write so well myself, but I am enjoying a look at the widely varied efforts of others on this site.