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 Santa Ana / Orange County 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.