I Blame My Parents

I started reading when I was about three.  I'm not bragging.  I blame my parents.  They were hippies with backgrounds in early childhood and elementary education.  They did weird hippie things like read to me, sing to me, take me to the library, put books in front of me to look at.  The usual weird hippie nonsense.  So, how could I not learn to read at a young age.  And, now I can't not read!  Everywhere I go there are words to be read!  Words out in public telling me what's on at the movies, how inexpensive bananas are this week (bananas are ridiculously inexpensive every week!), and the name of the restaurant I ought to go to.  Words in books taking me to fantastic new worlds, giving me new insights, making me think about things I'd never thought of before.  I can't escape words - they are everywhere!

I am so enthralled with words that I love to write them, too.  I blame my parents for this as well - crazy  hippies! My parents encouraged me to follow my dreams and do whatever I wanted to do!  One of my grade six assignments was to write about what vocation I would pursue as an adult.  I remember writing the assignment in two parts.  In the first part I wrote about how I intended to be a veterinarian or a surgeon.  In the second part I wrote that my mom was convinced I would be a writer of some sort.  (What do moms know anyway!)  Then, in grade eight, I began my first novel.  It has yet to be finished, and, honestly,  it's better that way.  It was a crazy rambling story about how my friends and I formed a rock band and went to Montreal to meet Cory Hart and Duran Duran.  (really, don't ask!)  I do remember reading it to my friends at recesses as it progressed.  It grew into this odd 'choose-your-own-adventure' story - my friends would request something (like meeting someone famous or playing a certain instrument in the band) and I'd write that into the story.  I was definitely putting myself 'out there' when I wrote that story.  I think I'm going to steal a little of my 13 year old self's confidence and start putting myself 'out there' a bit more.

I've become a member of a virtual community called CrimeSpace - where readers and writers of crime fiction mingle and chat and share.  By the end of the month I should also be a member of the Saskatoon Writers' Coop and the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild.  It's all very exciting to me, actually!

So, I'm now following another dream and doing whatever I want to do!  Maybe something will come of it, maybe it won't.  Either way, I still blame my parents! (crazy hippies!)

Cheers!