Janine Mendes-Franco writes: “Words have always been my thing. I was three when my brother was born; there was allegedly a welcome speech. I suspect, since I wasn’t great at verbal apologies back then, that once the sibling rivalry took hold, so did the writing: ‘Sorry for blowing out your birthday candles/wrecking your bike/selling you out to the parents.’ I read everything I could get my hands on and wrote anything I could imagine. Poetry. Short stories. Songs. Essays. Plays. English teachers loved me; suggested writing might actually be my calling — so naturally, I didn’t fully commit to it. Went into television and film production, which offered just enough crossover to explore both worlds, and the writer-producer hyphenate kind of stuck. Don’t regret a thing. Well, except for not grabbing a bigger slice of birthday cake. These days, I’ve been focusing on writing for children and producing documentary films.