In my opinion, the worst, most nearly unbearable phase of the motel business is that our lives are brushed daily by the fascinating lives of salesmen, vacationists, businessmen and travelers who each has secret, important affairs of his own--and that etiquette and lack of time (principally lack of time) prevent me from prying around the roots of these affairs and unearthing them. In addition to the rules we have now--that customers must check out by noon, that they must pay in advance, etc.--we should have a rule that each customer must give me a brief summary of his activities from birth until the present, explain the purpose of this particular trip, reveal his plans for the immediate future, and answer any questions that may occur to me. Then the motel business would be perfect. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Nancy Vogel's literary career began when, at the age of twelve, she had a poem published in a newspaper and won an essay contest. From then until the time she was married she wrote spasmodically; it wasn't until her first child was born, making free time for writing out of the question, that she began to write in earnest, producing fiction, articles, humor, poetry, book reviews, light verse, cartoon gags, newspaper columns, and everything else that varying kinds of word combinations might be termed. A Casteel by birth, she feels that one nice thing about having traded that name for Vogel is that she is no longer vulnerable to "soap" gags. She is a "native" Californian, born in Great Falls, Montana, from which she was whisked when she was a baby. THE BEECHHURST PRESS, INC. 296 BROADWAY, NEW YORK 7, N.Y.