Kinda cool. I don’t join many blogfests but I thought it would be fun to walk back in time to when I first started writing and why. And also read my fellow bloggers’ Origins stories. Check them out here. Thanks to the creator, DL Hammons.

For me it wasn’t about writing. I know, weird, right? I should have stories about how I wrote my first story at the age of one and knew that’s what I wanted to do my whole life.

But no.

I can say that I’ve always loved creating things to sell.

Go back in time: *cue music*

I lived in my favoritest house ever, the one with an attic filled with homemade gymnastics equipment, a huge sledding hill behind our barn, free sweet corn in the summer, a bike ride away from an ice cream store. The place where I’d create gymnastics routines and competitions with an old inner tube and one of the old metal swing sets that would now be condemned.

One summer I created my own line of cards. I made one for all the holidays with original artwork. I don’t think I ever tried to sell them but I had fun creating.

As I got older, I loved a good story, but I got lost in homework, friends, and later college. I loved creating lesson plans for students and teaching.

Fast Forward in time:

One year, I found myself married, substitute teaching, and farther away from friends. Somehow I ended up on the computer writing this terrible story. I scratched that and a couple years later my first full-length story starred the life of an ant. (I think because we had these horrible black ants in our first apartment.)

Henry always wanted to get ahead and be someone he wasn’t. When he got to the next stage, he’d complain about that stage. I found the life cycle of the ant fascinating. It ended with Henry realizing he was a Henrietta and a queen ant. And he/she still wasn’t happy.

I even decorated the borders of paper with ants and printed my story on that. #cornyIknow

But if I look back at that first story, it holds elements I still love. Secret identities. A bit of history. A main character discovering his/her true self. Humor.

I’d love to say I jumped in and then wrote my first novel and started querying. But it took longer.

Even farther in time:

About seven years ago, I’d watch movies and just get this feeling. I call it the story aura. It was really the desire to create stories and write.

I gave it a lot of thought, took the plunge, and never looked back!

And now my first short story in the IN HIS EYES anthology will be released on Valentine’s Day. And my first YA novel, A SPY LIKE ME, will be released in spring of 2012.

Kinda cool. I promise, I didn’t doodle spies in the border!

Now I’m off to see how others got their start.