Do you remember the first story you ever wrote?
The first one I remember was about a family of cardinals. I wrote it in second grade and drew a picture to illustrate it. I don't remember what happened, only that my teacher was very surprised that I wrote a story.
Do you remember the first story you ever read, and the impact it had on you?
I don't really remember learning to read, and I do remember enjoying Dr. Seuss's Bartholomew Cubbins and the Oobleck. The first story that really had an impact on me was Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers, where the character said something about not even trying to sign up to be a pilot, because girls were better pilots than boys. The rest of the book was about being in boot camp, and it was fascinating to me. I think I read it in third grade, circa 1960.
I was probably 8 or 9 at the time, and very much feeling that I got the short end of the stick as a girl--this would have been 1958-59. Girls were required to wear dresses, often the scratchy, crinoline kind. I hated dresses and rarely wear them except in the summer. I never really got into girls books except for Anne of Green Gables and Jo March of the Little Women series. I wanted to be a writer because of Jo March, even though we both ended up as teachers. Louisa Alcott managed to support herself by writing, however.
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