A simple question. One that many of us have been asked before. A question I think about all the time because it’s a reminder of what I’ve always wanted to do. Write.
This past week I got to meet some amazing people at Authors After Dark. One reader was sixteen and an aspiring author. She was asking everyone about when they first started writing.
There is one key moment in my life that I remember wanting to be an author. It was in elementary school. Fourth or fifth grade. We had a local author come to school and tell us about her career. How she started. Why she wrote realistic fiction. I was hooked. I wanted to be her. There was a contest we could all enter. All we had to do was write a short story and submit it in the contest. So I took the leap. And I got to go to the mini-conference they had for everyone who entered. For one whole day I got to talk to authors, I got to learn how to write a book. 
Now, I don’t remember all the details of the day. But I remember the amazing feeling of knowing I could write. Knowing I wanted to do that for the rest of my life. I wanted to go to a school and inspire kids the way she had inspired me. Of course back then I thought I would write realistic fiction.
Things change. Our perspectives change. I’m not the ten year old with a dream anymore. Now, I write. One day I will make this my career and I won’t have to worry about the day job. Until then, I’m so happy to have the chance to publish what I can. To edit for authors who I fan girl over.
My dreams are coming true each and every day. I hope the young lady I met at Authors After Dark will get the same opportunity. I hope she will follow her dream. I have a question for you…when did you start writing?
Spellbound Scribes 
I started writing when I was old enough to use my mom’s old olive green typewriter (not a word processor, a typewriter, ink, sticky keys and all). I think I may have been 8 or 9. All I remember is that a story that was a whole page was really long to me then. I wrote my first attempt at romance when I was like 12. It was BAAAAAD! Kept writing stories (all pretty darn bad) through college. Then in 1999 I started what would become by first Guinevere book. In 2008, I realized I’d gotten good enough to consider publication someday. In 2016, well, the world will finally see that book. (Shhh! I’m not officially announcing until tomorrow.) Great topic!