In the spring of 2002, still in New York City, I sat in front of my computer.  I tapped the send button to post an excerpt of Ceremonies to a literary erotica website.  I had had some pieces published recently on other topics in magazines.  I had also turned to assembling the second edition of a book on religious art.  (I had set aside the novel on the Vietnam War resister).  For most of my life I had felt like I was fake as a writer.  But I finally realized that, successful or not, this was what I did.  So I was determined to get published.