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The Two People Who Started It All by Cynthia Polansky

I owe my writing career

to two people: good friend Cheryl Cohn and author/instructor Jim Gray. I had always enjoyed writing and had been told as a child that I "had a flair for it." But when I received my first magazine rejection at age 17, I naively misinterpreted this author's-rite-of-passage as a "you don't have what it takes, kid" stop sign. It wasn't until I was twice that age that I decided to revisit writing. After helping Cheryl compose a business letter, she had remarked, "Wow, you really missed your calling!" I realized at that moment that I didn't want to look back at my life someday and wonder "what if..."

I enrolled in an adult-education writing course taught by Memphis author Jim Grey. I began a short story that Jim believed should be written as a novel, instead.
" I could never write a novel," I protested. If only Jim knew the powerful impact of his reply! Just four little words -- "of course you can" -- changed my life.

That short story I was writing? "Far Above Rubies."

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