When did you first start writing?
When I was in 4th grade, the school put out a book (actually bound and looked quite professional, or so I thought at the time) for all students in the school to purchase. I can't say I actually remember the price, but for some reason a dollar comes to mind. Anyway... I was never much into school activities, so I was unaware until a number of students who had purchased the book told me they really liked my stories. I had no idea what they were talking about until one of them handed me the book turned to the pages that had them. And sure enough, there were two stories I had written as assignments in class. The teacher had told us to write two stories, one about our favorite activity we could ever remember doing during the summer just past. The other was to be the worst activity during that same time frame. All I had done was fulfill a class assignment, but the teacher apparently deemed them both good enough to include in the book. Hey, who knew?!
What motivated you to become an indie author?
When I was teaching high school, the principal was in my class one period to do an evaluation, which he did periodically. When the class was over, he sat down with me to review his evaluation. The thing that stood out most in my mind was that he told me what I really did was put on five "performances" daily. He told me that he now understood why my classes were always full. It was like going to see a play or movie. Very entertaining! He told me that he would like to someday see me write a novel or two and channel some of that drama into them. He never knew that twenty years after his suggestion that I would start doing just that. After completing the first novel, I started looking on the internet for publishing companies. But, it felt like I would have to jump through so many hoops to make it happen, that I felt overwhelmed. So, I had an ebook cover designed instead, and published it myself. (That was eight books ago, and the ninth is in progress.) I'm so glad I took this route!
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