The Last Page

Ten years ago, I signed my first contract for a book in the middle-grade fiction category—a Bobbsey Twins mystery about sunken treasure. For the treasure, I devised a gold Aztec statuette—priceless, potent, and ruthlessly pilfered. After the Bobbseys cracked the case, the statuette would make a heralded return to a Mexican museum. I turned in the book outline. According to the editors, everything worked fine except my choice of treasure, which was, horror of horrors, “educational.” Th...