Once Upon a Time... Origins

DL Hammons (link), captain Alex (link), non-creepy expat Katie (link), and Mr. Q3E (link) are hosting this "Origins" blogfest.

We're to share how we started writing, blogging, or both.

For blogging, my story's pretty short: Janet Reid (link) said writers weren't ready to query unless they had an "online presence"--and Facebook doesn't count.

So I started a blog and coerced all my friends and family to follow. About six months later, I'd met many of you guys, and here we are. And it was the best decision ever--it led to my awesome betas/critters, it led to my agent, it led me to you...

As for writing, it's a bit longer. I wrote my first "book" when I was seven or eight. It was a sci-fi graphic-novel called Fury Woman. It was about a lady scientist who'd spilled acid on her face and turned evil.

almost-Fury Woman

I don't remember what she did when she was evil, but I do remember she looked just like Natasha Fatale from the Bullwinkle & Rocky show. Only with bigger eyebrows and a mole--those features were distorted by the acid.

Later I wrote another book that was illustrated by my bestie Dara (Rush) Bartee called Dignity & Detriment.

It had nothing to do with Pride & Prejudice, but there were princesses. I think there were also unicorns...

So it was always sort of me telling stories. Mostly to myself. Sometimes to my mom or Dara.

One day when I was a freshman in high school, I read something my brother had written for English class (he was a senior), and it literally blew me away. I couldn't believe he'd written it and I was so... burned.

How could he write that well? He didn't even want to write! He wanted to be a lawyer. (He now works in human resources and to my knowledge never writes creatively.)

But I followed his example and started taking my school writing assignments more seriously. I joined the newspaper staff, did some short fiction writing for school anthologies--and was always embarrassed by my lack of edginess compared to my peers.

My mom said I'd be a novelist then, but I quickly told her no way.

Real writers weren't dorks like me. And besides, I didn't have that... thing... that It... real writers have. I'd never write a book.

Still, I majored in English at LSU (geaux, Tigers!). I wrote some poetry for a while that made that same brother of mine cry when he read it. But when I showed it to a poetry professor at LSU, he said it was pretty derivative and not so great.

JRM said that guy was a tool, but the professor spoke words I believed.

So I stopped writing poetry.

I got my master's in mass communications and edited other people's writing for a while. I learned to write news articles and did that for a while, too. I pretty much did everything in communications, from public relations writing to television production to news writing to magazine writing and editing...

Then in 2002-03, I had two lovely little girls.

Then in Fall 2009, I sat down and started writing my first book. In December of that year, I told JRM what I was doing.

That's my origin story! Hope you liked it, reader- and writer-friends. If you'd like to read some of our other bloggy friends's stories, go here (link).

Have a great week! <3