Imagine a world in which fiction springs to life as soon as it is shaped in a writer’s mind. A world in which colorful characters walk off pages and fabulous landscapes turn fragrant and luminous at the flick of the proverbial pen. A world in which all manner of fanciful contraptions rumble down the hill or hum across the sky the moment they have been captured in words. A world in which fiction does not exist, nor could possibly exist. Come to think of it, is not ours just such a world? Except that it takes a little while for reality to catch up with fiction.