These are a series of fictional stories by Canadian writer, Sherry Cassells featured exclusively on Silver. I took an online writing course which I tried to cancel but it was too late. Our first assignment was to tell one truth and one lie and our fellow writers had to determine which was which. I said  I am purple and  I am looking forward to this course… They all got it wrong. Give your characters something to want, create conflict, show don’t tell, write what you know. Say hello to Marvins, my protagonist who wants for nothing. He is not based on my father or my teacher or a dead uncle or anyone else. His name is because his mother named him thrice, once for him, and once for each identical brother who didn’t make it. Another important thing when writing fiction is plausibility. Marvins is an old man. His veins are squished