When I was around nineteen and twenty years old, I got lucky. Incredibly lucky. Similar to how even the most unskilled archer can hit a target, I hit a target. What was more, I hit it on a first try. I was the literary equivalent to someone who had never touched a longbow hefting one up, trying it out to size, walking up into a contest because I was curious about the crowd of people standing there, chatting up Robin Hood, and splitting his bulls-eye arrow with my first shot.

It was an accide...