Kids Pay The Darndest Things

A few weeks ago I told my daughter Sabrina, 5 but almost 6, that I was going to my office above the garage to work on my book. I think I described it something like "work that no one pays me for." She told me to stay where I was and ran off to her room.

In a short while she came back with a dollar bill and pressed it into my hand. "Here," she said proudly. "Now someone pays you for your work."

A few minutes later she was crying out, forcing me to stop hugging her and put her back down on the ground. Which was good, because I needed a hand to wipe the tears out of my eyes.

So I've been paid an advance for my new novel, "Some Things You Die For," by a first grader. Sadly, I'm pretty sure her parents won't let her read it for a few years. Since I've sold out to my first grader, she's been telling people that her daddy's writing a book, something that they really don't need to know.

And I thought it would take a two book contract to make me happy.