So true about ideas being "out there," and we just develop something from them. There are zeitgeists in our cultures, in our times, heck - in our collective subconscious, if you're of that ilk. Humans all across the globe - even before modern communications technologies - developed the same kinds of ideas and technologies at about the same time because those were the things on the minds of people at that time in our development.

When I'm writing - when it's going really well, anyhow - I often have that feeling of being out of control of what's appearing on the page, and that's awesome! When they say, "The story wrote itself," that's not entirely true, but a good story gets control of the storyteller rather than the other way around.

I appreciate your confidence in my gentlemanliness, but if I could go back and handle it differently, I would!