I've always been compelled to tell stories.

When I was six years old I was invited to my friend John's house for dinner. While eating the meal, I told John and his parents how I went mountain climbing in Switzerland with my family. They believed my wondrous story until the moment I brought up the lions. Yes, according to me, my family and I were attacked by mountain lions in the Swiss Alps. We would have died had not my father grabbed a lion by the tail and used it to beat off the others.

That's the first story I remember telling. When I was seven, my parents gave me a tape recorder in order for me to capture my stories. Even though I remember being uncertain about using the tape recorder for stories, I wish I had my audio tapes from that time. As elementary school progressed, my mother captured some of my stories using a manual typewriter. As far as I know, all of those tales have been lost over the course of the numerous moves from one town to the other in my life.

I did make a sale during those years! A science fiction I hand-wrote on paper when I was eight was purchased by my eleven-year-old brother for three dollars. He planned to make it into a movie. Unfortunately, that never happened, but the little boy in me wishes it had.

In middle school, I wrote adventure stories instead of paying attention in class. On at least three occasions teachers took my effort and read them to the class. I was terribly embarrassed but I remember my fellow students being pleased with what I wrote. Some of them even encouraged me to write more! I would like to think that was because my writing was good, but I suspect it's because it was funny to watch me get mocked by a teacher.

In high school I started to I sneak stories into assignments that we're meant to be stories. For example, once I was told to define the word 'Shandrydan'. Stumped, I wrote a story how Shandrydan was the name of a black-scaled dragon that spat acid. That black dragon went over well, the teacher being so impressed she read it to the class. I remember the next day was a story-writing effort inspired by my tale.