First Story Remembrances

I've already blogged today, but just had to add this before I forget. After blood work today (nothing serious...just getting things checked out), I came home and immediately wanted to clean - fathom that - but because of my sore arm, that was impossible, so I opened up my email.

One such email was from a man named Chris Holm, who was asking if I'd list his blog in my blog listings on my website at The Writer's Life. Well, I went over and checked his blog out to make sure it wasn't X-rated, if youknowwhattamean, and for the first time this morning, I laughed.

The link is here if you'd like to read. He's just like all of us, waiting for that Big Break, and the story he told of that first story he ever wrote at the age of six was just utterly charming. And what I found so coincidental was that his first story that he wrote as a child had the same theme as what he is writing now.

Think back to when you were a child. What kind of things did you like to write about and are they basically the same type of stories you are writing now?

When I was a child, eight years old in fact, I wrote a story about my vacation in Long Beach, California. It was one of those normal school assignments where your teacher welcomes you back to school after a long, wonderful summer and bangs you on the head with that first assignment - write a story about your summer vacation sort of thing. I knew what I was going to write about, but wanted my story to be a book and not just a story so what I did was take unlined sheets of paper, fold them in half and punched holes in the side. I ran yarn through the holes to keep them together and wrote and illustrated my very first book. Oh, how I'd love to get my hands on that now. I take it back to school and of course I'm the oddball being the only one who would go to that extreme of making a book, but I did get an A and probably scored a few brownie points from the teacher which would come in handy when I wanted to do things that weren't allowed. Come on now, we've all done it.

But, Chris' blog post made me think of how long we've had these stories in our heads...all the way up to childhood. My book right now is about 3 women from California, the little book I made in second grade was about a trip to California, too. Wonder if this is a sign? A good sign?

I also remember writing up plays for the kids in the neighborhood and I even dabbled in some poetry, but that story will remain my favorite story I tell to everyone when they ask me about my first book. It might not be my first published book, but it's the one I'll never forget.