Happy Birthday to the Last Writer You’d Ever Expect to Plot a Murder

And now, for your Friday moment of writerly Zen, a curiosity found in the June 1922 issue of Writer's Digest:

"I have always adored detective stories; I have always thought they must be great fun to write. One day, about three years ago, I thought of rather a good way of murdering somebody. Instead of leaving it at that, I went on thinking about it, and finally decided that it would make a good story. I began to write the first chapter of [The Red House Mystery] and left the story to take care of itself."

Who said it? A.A. Milne, author of various plays and novels, including the aforementioned murder mystery—and, of course, the creator of Winnie the Pooh. Today, Milne would have been 131 years old.