The ORIGINS Blogfest

 “When did your writing dream begin?” What an excellent idea for a blog hop! This blogfest is being hosted by DL Hammons and co-sponsored by Alex Cavanaugh, Katie Mills, and Matthew MacNish. I found out about the hop through  Jeremy Bates. Thanks to all!

I’ve always thought of myself as a storyteller first, a writer second. Storytelling comes naturally, writing (as we all know) is the hard part. And contrary to what parents and teachers scolded, being a storyteller is not just one rung down the criminal ladder from shoplifting.

As a child of about five, I remember sitting in the backyard and being absolutely positive that I could see evidence of tiny people and tiny animals living in our strawberry patch. The story of how these tiny people came to live in the strawberry patch, where they came from, who they were, and what they did all day just, um…popped into my head. I seemed to have been born with [insert horrifying realization background music here] an imagination (eeekk). Since no one believed me when I told them about the people who lived in the strawberry patch, or for that matter the little king who had lost his kingdom, or the goat who liked to hide treasure under the neighbor’s house, I decided to write down these stories. Then, I created someone to believe me. Her name was Henny and she was a chicken. Just to clarify, as a child I did not live on a farm or what would even be considered a rural area. Although I had heard of them, I’d never seen a chicken or a goat, which became proof of the aforementioned, dreaded (at least by my parents and teachers) imagination.

Stories continued to present themselves to me. Characters continued to fill my head. By the time I became I teenager I decided that I was either nuts (a distinct possibility) or I was a writer (same thing). And here I am. The truth is, I write to keep the characters who continually dance, cry, sing, walk, fly, laugh, fight, or whatever else they dream up in my head, appeased. Above all, this motley group is demanding, so believe me when I say that I will do whatever it takes to keep the peace…even if it is writing.