When you're not writing, how do you spend your time?
Writers spend too much time alone with a computer or a book, and a physician once advised me to get out among people more. So, in addition to managing our home, reading and researching, I visit our grandchildren, work out at the local YMCA, attend meetings of Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles, the Orange County California chapter of Romance Writers of America, and my local branch of the American Association of University Women.
I've learned that you can't get ideas for books if you shut yourself away from life.
Do you remember the first story you ever wrote?
If you mean what was the story, the answer is no. I was only eight, and what I remember is the burst of excitement I felt as I gripped the pencil and began to write. My third grade teacher had given us lined paper and allowed us to write stories. I'm sure part of the exercise was to improve our new cursive writing skill, and the other was to practice a process that would be important the rest of our lives. For me it opened a door to a way of expression that has been important to me ever since. I fell in love with her that day. I no longer recall her name, but I remember the precious the gift she gave me.
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