"I wanted to show this story to my mother because I was proud of it, and it had been published, so I xeroxed it and cut it out column by column between the ads, but I worried she would recognize herself as one of the characters. She read the story, and then she looked up all starry-eyed and said, "Darling? Who's the bitch?" "Diane's mother," I peeped, and she nodded and said, "I thought so." So that was my first published story, and it was an introduction to shame. I don't think dignity is a word that writers can claim. We submit. When your work does come out, you can be proud for the moment. But if you're in a magazine, you may be read on a toilet and thrown away. You just learn to walk tall."