The Old Man and The Sea. Just did one day. Entered an International Writing Contest.
I cant really remember exactly what I first read. But while I was growing up, I read lots of Bedtimes stories, Pacesetters books and Drumbeat Africa - I guess. I began writing when I was quite young - primary school. I used to write letters to my friends then telling them stories of happenings around me. Also in primary school then, we were often given homework to write stories and I often did well in mine. My teachers liked my worked. Cant really remember who first read what I wrote when I was young. But my first novel was read by a publisher friend who felt it was worth publishing.
I dreaded reading until after college. I lived overseas in the eighties and that is when I started devouring books of all kinds. As I was getting more and more disappointed in our political system, I started blogging. Getting frustrated with the lack of information fellow bloggers had and the bias in our media, I put pen to paper to voice my opinions via a political thriller. I composed my first novel in just over three weeks, "National Contender" and was surprised when I had four offers to publish it. The first draft was sent to a neighbor and a relative. They encouraged me to seek out a publisher. I joined firstwriters.com for $3.95 a month and they supplied a list of publishers that would accept queries by e-mail. After an afternoon of contacting these publishers, I got my offers.
My first true reading experience that inspired a love of reading began with my reading of Heidi. The story gave me a love of place--the mountains--and an appreciation for the masterful way an author develops and captures character on the written page. It showed me a vicarious way to enjoy people, their cultures and way of life, their problems and how they dealt with them. Reading Heidi marked the beginning of my becoming a lifetime reader and would later be remembered when I took pencil in hand to write my first simple stories in youth.
Like most young girls during my youth, my first writing experience began with diary writing. I kept a diary and wrote daily in it. It was my private world of thoughts--or at least I thought so until I discovered my siblings invading my privacy and reading everything I wrote. I was so upset, I destroyed my diary and not long after that I began writing simple childish stories about things that I knew.
When my mother bought me a typewriter for my sixteenth birthday, I felt a sense of magic when I touched my fingers to the keys. Words filled my mind, craving expression, and from that moment on I had a hunger for creation through writing.
Until high school, most of what I wrote was for my own personal satisfaction until I won first place in a writing contest, I Speak for Democracy. Then I served on the school newspaper as Assistant Editor and delved in some article writing. Prior to college I was making my first attempts at novel writing, which I knew absolutely nothing about. I would start stories, throw them away and start new stories. I finally finished one novel, which I still have the manuscript stored in my files. I even sent it to a publisher and received my first rejection slip—with good reason. The book needed revisions and editing that at the time I wasn’t trained to do. However, from that time forward, I nursed the desire to become a published author.
After finishing college and teaching for twenty-six years I finally had time to dedicate to serious writing, but first, I knew I needed to learn more about what I wanted to attempt. I joined a writer’s book club and started studying the specifics about novel writing. Eventually, I felt like I had the tools I needed to write my first novel, so having made the transition from typewriter to computer, I sat down and started writing my first published novel, Wall of Color, followed by six others, and creating an addiction to writing that has been one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever done.   | | |
My first books as a young girl were those Nancy Drew Series books. I use to cuddle up by the firsplace on those cold winter days when I was finished playing in the snow. As I matured, I began to read anything that caught my interest, from spirituality to comedy.
I first began writing when my first son was born. I wrote a short story about eating your vegetables. As my family grew, so did my writing. The first to read any of my "chapters" are my family and friends...and THEN I branch out. This way, I get the full spectrum of feedback.
I read the plot of a storyline assignment in fifth or sixth grade; the assignment was to complete the story. My teacher, Mrs. Ashabrenner was the first to read my work, she wrote on my report card; "He will probably become a writer". My Mother was impressed.
In the years passing, my life took me down many roads, as a young military policeman in the United States Air Force, service station attendant, fast food restaurant manager, Executive Recruiter (in NYC), Individual Co-Trustee of a private trust for an Hungarian Count (in Miami), Chief Investigator for a criminal defense law firm, Co-Author of "DAVID JANSSEN - MY FUGITIVE", written with the Emmy Award wining late actor's first wife, ELLIE JANSSEN, and Director of Client Relations for a Bail Bonds agency.
It was the David Janssen Biography that I actually began taking writing as a potential and serious career change. With the success of the Janssen book, I decided to make a concentrated effort at writing novels in the detectives and courtroom genre. | | |
Isaac Asimov Various
My father had an extensive library at home. I would grab any book and dig in, particularly when I was told that I was too young to understand it. I have been an avid reader all my life.
I've always loved reading as far back as I can remember. One book that stands out was one I read in 4th grade from the school bookclub called Lisa, Bright and Dark. I simply got lost in the story of a young girl slipping into the world of Schizophrenia.
I started writing "personalized" comic books for my school friends in grade school and then began writing a ton of poetry/lyrics when I started singing in a band around 14.
Bandmates and classmates were the first people to see anything I'd written.
The first book to make a profound impression on me was THE CALL OF THE WILD. I think I was in the sixth grade when I read it. I began to write in high school; I started writing poetry at age 15 or so, and I wrote my first play in my senior year.
Stephen King, Skeleton Crew. I just started writing poems when I was in high school, and so on. My friends at work, Kathy read most of them and she always loved them.
I went to school in France back then in the 70s so that would foreign language lit. The classicals basically such as Rousseau, Voltaire, and the philosophers.
I read everything I could get my hands on for as long as I can remember.
I've been reading ever since I can remember, which actually sounds like a dumb statement. The first book I remember reading on my own was a Clifford the Big Red Dog book. Then I moved on to Goosebumps, and Animorphs, and then everything else. As long as I can remember, I'd always thought being a writer was so cool; I had these half-baked book ideas in my head when I was like twelve. Needless to say, none of them panned out.
writing for me was the one way I could get my parents to get what I was saying. I liked illustrating what was on my mind onto pages for people to read and become entangled into my personal point of view. My mother had been my primary source of inspiration in that she would show my works to her co-workers. |
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