D. X. Logan

The first novel I read was Golem in the Gears, by Piers Anthony. My father read from novels to us when I was younger. We'd sit and listen as he didn't just speak the words, but lived them. Each character spoke in a unique voice and seemed to have their own existence separate from the book. I don't know if his work became busier or if he perhaps misplaced the book, but for whatever reason, he never finished that novel.

It ate at me. I wanted to know how it ended. I wanted to find out what happened to those characters. Until that moment, reading was something I did because school required it. Afterwards, I was reading for myself. I can't say what I did, as I don't remember it. What I can say is that within the span between first and second grade, I had pushed myself far enough that I was able to read the novel myself. After that, there was no going back. Thankfully my father had a reasonably large library of novels.

Aside from school assignments, yes. I first got serious about writing somewhere in the transition between junior high and high school. Without the benefit of planning out a plot, adding themes or much skill at developing characters, I wrote a short story. It was about an elemental that went to a high school prom. Government agents had become aware of his nature and grabbed both him and his girlfriend. He shifted forms to fight but ended up going down. The conclusion had them both on a table, him as rubble, her having been opened up to 'study', and the protagonist reforming to go on a rampage in the facility. I still have it tucked in a folder. What it lacked in skill, it certainly made up for in ambition. I can't say my stories have gotten any less fantastical, but I believe they've become far more refined over the years since then.