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Another thing that my teacher, Gladys Swan, taught me very early in my fiction writing, she said to me-- and I was a high school teacher at the time-- and she said, well, what's your goal? I didn't have one particularly, so I had to make something up on the spot. I said, every year, my high school students-- one of the books that they really enjoy is To Kill a Mockingbird. It really speaks to them, to kids. I guess I'd like to write something that high school kids would read because they want to read it, not because they have to read it. Gladys sort of frowned, and she said, the last thing you want to do is to preconceive who your audience is going to be. She said, what you need to do is write the story for yourself and let the audience that needs to find it find it. I'm sure I had a dopey look on my face, and it's like, I'm not quite sure what you mean, Gladys. She said, well, I'll tell you what. My best advice to you is to go back and read ancient myth, because it's no accident that these are the stories that have lasted the longest, because they are the stories, the archetypal stories, that people need to be told over, and over, and over again. So go back and read the old myths. She said, you're never going to tell a completely original story. The world is an old place, and all the stories that people need are already out there, not only in a culture, but in all the cultures. The best thing that you can do is put your own original spin, give your own take on the ancient stories.