(If you have a deft writer like Mark Leibovich to place it all in the context of Washington as a small town.)

A deft writer can lure us into using the same impulse to collaborate with him in the creation of an infant character.

What a deft, risk-taking, omnivorous-minded writer!

"She was sensitive, extremely gentle and loving to a writer, enormously encouraging and, at the same time, deft," Mr. Weinberg said.

He was known as a quick and deft writer.

Mr. Baddock is a deft writer, and it will be worth waiting for.

Mr. Cringely is a deft writer who is particularly good at capturing the human side of a business based on machines.

Robert Irwin, the author of three previous novels, is a deft writer with a fine ironic touch.

They had become quite deft at sifting accurate information out of the stories of the hopelessly ignorant, gullible news writers.

It helps, too, that Mr. Henkin is such a deft and fluid writer.