wow.

evelyn lau (author of runaway: diary of a street kid) came to talk to our editing class today. she just talked about what it was like to be an author being edited, but just being in her presence was so...raw.

she published runaway when she was just 18 and listening to her speak and realizing what she's been through made me at once grateful that i never had to experience any of her hardships and sort of disappointed that i would never have the scope to be a genuinely profound writer.

i mean, i've had such a pedestrian upbringing...the brilliant creative geniuses that rise to acclaim, whether it be in writing or in art, seem to have had such hard lives -- most either psychologically disturbed or drug-addicted, or both -- and it makes me wonder if i'd need a similar kind of afliction to really understand.

evelyn lau was so articulate and seemed so warm and, well, normal. just speaking to her now, it's virtually impossible to picture her as a strung-out hooker on a vancouver street corner. it was amazing to hear her relay her experience with such linguistic perfection and then to realize that she didn't have an education past the age of 14.

that said, our editing instructor, who happened to edit runaway, actually, told us that she probably wasn't sustaining herself with just her writing and was likely getting some money from some freelance editing she was doing on the side. for some reason, i inexplicably found myself concerned for her well-being, something i don't feel i have the right to do.

wow.