Richard Hugo taught me that anyone with a desire to write, an ear for language and a bit of imagination could become a writer. He also, in a way, gave me permission to write about northern Montana.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I taught English and history, so my education for that really helped prepare me for writing historical fiction.
I became fascinated by the fact that people write to give away rather than write to be read. It's the difference between playwrights and novelists.
One of the first serious attempts I made to write a novel was when I was in Grade 6 and I had read 'Matilda.' I wrote my own version and my teacher had it bound and permitted me to read it to the class - cementing my love of reading, writing and Roald Dahl!
When I was a child I used to read books by Gerald Durrell, who founded Jersey Zoo. He had a job collecting animals for zoos and for a long time that is what I wanted to do. Later when I was a teenager I had a fantastic English teacher called Mrs. Stafford. Her enthusiasm made me decide to be a writer.
What inspired me to become an author? I think it was the snow in New York. I looked out the window and I said, 'Well, I have to get dressed every morning to go to teach, but if I write a book, I can stay home in my bathrobe, eat candy corn.'
Writing was something I always as a kid thought would be fabulous and glamorous to be a writer.
I tried writing fiction as a little kid, but had a teacher humiliate me, so didn't write again until I was a senior in college.
Perhaps it would be better not to be a writer, but if you must, then write.
I'd always been a big reader, and I loved books, and I always thought writing would be a great way to get by in the world.
I never studied writing, but I'd always been a reader and had a secret fantasy about being a writer.