When in the public school system I wasn't much of a scholar, but I did like to learn. So after my mandatory sentence at Grand Forks Secondary School, I got a job and told myself I was never going to school again. Within five years I started night school.Moving away from home when I was young, too young for some, I grew up in the big city. Vancouver, BC had the jobs, the night life, and more life lessons than I ever wanted or needed.I don't want to tell you I've written all my life or that it started with poems in high school, journals throughout my twenties and well beyond. I don't want to say it because every little fish says it, or something close to it. What is sad, is all that writing didn't help me when I wanted to go public.Learning very specific skills, helped me. Reading every book I could find on how to write an intriguing story, helped me. Joining an online critique group, and writing a blog, tweeting, and posting to Facebook, helped me.It's taken a long time to get this far and I suppose it will take longer still to grow into what some might call a bigger fish. I have the time, and the support to try, but I never forget this quote: There's always a bigger fish--Star Wars Phantom Menace