I remember receiving a writing award in 4th Grade for a story I wrote called "The Secret of Grandma's Cookie Jar."  No doubt the Nancy Drew books I loved to read at the time influenced the title choice.

One night a couple of years later, my mother came in and woke me up to tell me that I had won an essay writing contest sponsored by my Released-Time Christian Education class.  I recall that I was rather distraught, because (although I didn't know the term in those days) I knew I had BS'd my way through the writing exercise, and now my reward/punishment was to read the essay in public.  Unfortunately, I did not keep a copy of the essay. But I do have proof that I attended the awards dinner and ceremony--a picture that appeared in the local newspaper (The Register).  That's me on the bottom right with the cool glasses.
 
Since 4th grade, the focus of my writing has shifted to technical writing.  For a number of years, I had the opportunity to improve my technical writing and editing skills as I helped to draft reports for committees overseeing the preservation of local open space. I also edited content for client web pages.  Now I'm happy just to remain in the background--except for an occasional Letter to the Editor.
 
Several years ago, I made a small return to creative writing with a children's book called Davy's Dream. My son Geoffrey Lewis, when he wasn't at his day job as a Chinese linguist for the Air Force, helped me with the illustrations. I did the original line drawings and he did all the neat stuff. Here's a sampling of the illustrations.