Do you remember the first story you ever read, and the impact it had on you?
I was completely captivated by Jean de Brunhoff's Babar the Elephant, from his green suit to how he could drive a car. The book was printed in cursive writing, which also seemed magical. Of all the storybooks from my childhood, Babar has never left my imagination, stoking it to the present day (although I have never written about an elephant in a green suit).
When did you first start writing?
In 2006, my oldest child mentioned National Novel Writing Month, and that I might enjoy it. Funny how one's offspring can sense even the deepest desires, perhaps it was all the time spent together homeschooling. But that wasn't when I actually began writing. Like many authors, I always hoped to pen The Great American Novel.
The moment that I realized telling stories was imperative to my well-being came in 1992, watching Callie Khouri accept the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Thelma and Louise. From that day, ideas flew but as the mum of three small children, there seemed no time to scribble much more than a grocery list. I did manage a screenplay based on my tenure at beauty college, but scripts weren't my calling. It took over a decade to find the time and impetus to write a novel, but in the interim I scratched out countless journal entries, a few poems, and of course more grocery lists. Yet my daughter seemed to note my love for writing, and when she mentioned NaNoWriMo, I had found the outlet for all those authorial dreams. And maybe having just turned forty might have had something to do with it too.
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