Dec. 12, GAINESVILLE, FL. The small town -- now a small city -- where I grew up. That's me outside Littlewood Elementary, before I lost my faith in the power of fertility symbols. Scrape up just enough voice to record a radio interview at the station where I worked during college. The student reporter takes time to ask the most emotionally probing questions of the entire book tour -- he hasn't been ruined yet by the hurry-up-and-skim-the-surface Business of Broadcasting. (Before it airs, the hour-long interview will be edited down to a few minutes.) At the local bookstore, eighteen family friends pack the tiny reading room. Mom is so proud. A shy person who avoids public speaking herself, she exclaims after, "I had no idea you had such a good vocabulary!"