ATELIER SPECIAL: VARIATIONS ON A BEGINNING -- Atelier Specials feature original creative content including essays, fiction, and excerpts. For today's inaugural Atelier Special: an autobiographical essay by M. Allen Cunningham, slightly abridged. "Variations on a Beginning" was originally published in The Timberline Review (issue 3, summer/fall 2016). You can read the complete essay at medium.com/@M_A_Cunningham. Mentioned in this episode: Monterey Bay; guns; Edmond Jabes; selling for writers; narrative; secrets; Jacques Derrida; Italo Calvino; biblical story of Samuel; Zen Master Shunriyu Suzuki Roshi; Henry James. (All music used courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist)