As the mother of an almost-two-year-old, I have a front-row seat to human brain development. As I watch her fearlessly climbing the furniture, shoving God-only-knows-what into her mouth to explore its taste and texture and running pell-mell into every new adventure, I wonder sometimes how it is our species ever evolved to this point.

However, when I can set aside my initial panic response (she might make it to her fourth birthday, but I sometimes wonder if I’ll live to see it), I’m amazed at the fearlessness and sense of wondrous adventure with which she approaches every experience.

But I shouldn’t be.

After all, I see examples of this every day in my line of work.

They’re called fiction writers.

As one of WMG Publishing’s esteemed writers, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, often says, you need to commune with your inner two-year-old to really draw out your creative side.

I knew what she meant before, but now, I really get it.

Through great fiction, which is what we publish here at WMG Publishing, we are transported into the world created by the writer, a world often so detailed that we picture our own version in our heads. We combine the writer’s imagination with our own to explore and discover new experiences, new adventures, new ideas.

We set aside our money worries or health concerns or relationship stresses, and we escape to a bright, shiny, new world — one impossible to reach in our reality.

Even those of us who love to travel and experience new places, meet new people, sample new cuisine and culture, still do these things as ourselves. We inevitably bring more baggage with us on our trip than just our luggage.

But with fiction, well, we can go wherever we want and be whomever we want — at least for a while — no matter what our economic means.

Even if we’re much older than two.