View of New River in North Carolina through trees

I'll use this blog to discuss the journey of my writing process, connect with those who share my passion for reading, and have a little fun along the way.

People are often asked, “What book made you a reader?” Some will answer with the title of a classic such as Moby Dick, Jane Eyre, or Pride and Prejudice. Some will harken back to an earlier time and answer with The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, or Encyclopedia Brown.

 

I have to go back even further— back to my first grade class, sitting in a semi-circle with my first grade teacher seated before a three-foot high book of Dick and Jane. I grew up with a mother who read to us every night, so I had an appreciation of the magic that was held within the cover of a book. But it was learning how to interpret those words for myself—the act of being able to turn the letters into words, words into sentences, and sentences into paragraphs that made me the reader that I am today.

 

People are also asked, “What made you decide to become a writer?” The answers to that question are as varied as there are stars in the sky. Some will say it’s because they loved reading. Some will say that they wanted to memorialize a person or event that changed them forever. And some, like me, will say the habit of writing stories started at a very early age.

 

I can name the book that started me on my writing pathway. When I was still in grade school, my father brought home a Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary. OMG!! All those WORDS! It was the most magical book I could ever imagine. I would read it for hours, devouring all those words and definitions. The words piled up in my head, demanding to be put to paper. And so, I began to write.

 

My first piece of work, as an homage to Carolyn Keene, was a Nancy Drew knockoff called “The House with the Orange Shutters,” that was serialized and mimeographed in my grade school paper. Asserting my victory as a mystery writer, I moved on to poetry and wrote some pretty bad (morose) teen angst stuff. It rhymed, which is about all I can say for it.

 

So, those are the two books which guided and inspired me to write. Which books inspired you?