GR Magazine discussion

What made you become a writer? Was it the money (lol)? A particular author? A burning desire to create? (That was my greatest influence)

My urge has been building for years, but while I want to create, I'm lazy & would rather just read. Unfortunately, too many writers, both for books & TV, have been handling horses & farm life in general in more unrealistic ways. A common topic of discussion & complaint around our house (we all read a lot, mostly fantasy) has been how 'a horse wouldn't do that'. The frustration built & when a friend of mine asked for a blog post about horses, I just popped. I wrote down about a dozen of the most common mistakes we see & wound up expanding it into a book, a primer on horses & farms for fantasy authors, my heroes.

After actually working on a short book length manuscript, my respect for any author jumped several notches. Wow, but that's a lot of work! Self editing has to be one of the toughest jobs in the world. It's mentally & spiritually draining.

Mom.

My mother hands down. She encouraged and inspired. She prided herself on good books and taught me to do the same both as reader and writer. I am a humble servant of the written word and I admire all that dare to take up the mantle. It is certainly not for the faint of heart... but the rewards.... are like stardust!

I've always been a creative person, but the thing that always comes back to me when asked this type of question, is a school assignment. We were asked to finish a story (I can't for the life of me remember the name) as an assignment. We were to write at least one page. After getting home and seeing all of the stuff running through my head, I sat down and wrote... nine pages. That was the first time I recall getting bit by the bug, and let me tell you, the venom is still racing through my veins!

But what a sweet necture it is!