I have the best readers in the world. Not only did commenter jv alert me to the fact that we had Simone’s crib put together incorrectly (Scott’s fault! Blame Scott!), but your requests are making this whole NaBloPoMo thing much less painful than expected.
Today I am honoring two related topic suggestions, the first from Melissa:
“I’d love to hear about how you got started writing & what your writing background is.”
I started by lying. It was easier than writing when I was very young, because I had a hard time mastering the lowercase letter “e.” Instead I would make up stories, some outrageous (like my many tales of Phooeyland, where the inhabitants were half-building/half-fish), and some…no, they were all outrageous. I convinced other children that I was adopted, that a certain type of seed found on the playground was in fact a Unicorn Egg; I told wild, fantastical lies to anyone who would listen. As you may recall, I once pretended to be a triplet—and acted all three parts.
In kindergarten, I read my first chapter book, The One and Only Bunbun.
I don’t think it is exaggerating to say that The One and Only Bunbun changed my life suddenly and dramatically. You can only get so immersed in a picture book, you see, but a chapter book is different. The One and Only Bunbun was SIXTY-FOUR PAGES long. I fell into that book, and when I emerged, all I wanted was more. I don’t remember exactly when I decided I wanted to write books myself, but it was a natural consequence of my newly unshakeable belief that books were the best things in the whole wide world, and while I flirted with other career aspirations (teacher, actress, spy), writer is the one that endured.
In second grade I began what I referred to as a “semi-autobiographical novel,” having just learned the intoxicating term “semi-autobiographical,” and I called it The Story of Hannah. Later efforts included the treacley period piece An Orphaned Princess (fifth grade) and several other thankfully unnamed tales, all featuring plucky, defiant heroines with flashing eyes. In sixth grade, a story I wrote was published in the newspaper as part of a writing contest. It was then made into a play by the local Children’s Museum, and I received actual, honest-to-goodness fan mail: a card with a kitten on it from someone with spidery, old lady handwriting. The day I was called to the principal’s office to take a call alerting me to my win ranks with my wedding and Simone’s birth as one of the happiest of my life. Incidentally, that sixth grade story was also my first experience with a deadline. I had planned to enter the contest, forgotten about it, and then sat down to whip something up the night it was due, racing to have it postmarked in time. Sadly, it is only recently that my time-management skills have improved at all from those I had at eleven.
By high school it had started to dawn on me that one needn’t choose between being funny or conversational and being a Real Writer, and I ditched the third person for the first and wrote half of a novel in the form of diary entries. By the time I left to study writing in college I had abandoned fiction altogether for essays, and then the years rolled by and voila! Here I am.
Which brings me to another topic request from Laura:
“The mysterious project you are working upon; see references to deadlines in your twitter. I suspect publisher-mandated blog silence on that one, though.”
Actually, the deadlines I mention are not for any mysterious project, but rather my assortment of freelance jobs. I do some online writing for a university, and I have been lucky enough to get a few magazine assignments, one of which I am absolutely apoplectic with excitement about, and will gleefully direct you to once it is available on newsstands (*genuflects madly*).
Of course I do HAVE a project, the book I am writing, though the only mysterious thing about it is whether I will ever find the time to finish it off. But I assure you that there is no “publisher mandated blog silence” on the subject, at least not yet. (PUBLISHERS! FEEL FREE TO MANDATE MY BLOG SILENCE!)
So far no one has seen it but Simone, and she can’t read—thank god, because the last thing I need is to have some BABY pointing out the structural weaknesses of my manuscript. I have been toying with the idea of writing a proposal to send to agents, mostly because if I sold the book I would then have a deadline, and I find deadlines are the only way anything gets done around here. Unfortunately I don’t know (a) how to write a proposal or (b) any agents. But I’m not about to let a little thing like incompetence stand in my way, don’t you worry.
Now, indulge my curiosity: do you remember the first real, with-chapters-and-everything BOOK you read?
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Mine was Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White in first grade. I was convinced I would never read another book that I loved as much as that one. Fortunately, it was the first of many books about which I have made that claim (and continue to do so!).
By the way, I loved this post about your writing life.
The Girl with the Silver Eyes.
Charlotte’s Web for me, too! I was 6 and my aunt was babysitting me. I was bored and picked out one of my cousin’s books. I read it cover to cover while lying on the floor on my stomach. I had a sore neck for a week.
‘Mr Popper’s Penguins’ by Richard Atwater. Also life changing, but my life changing moment seemed to have waiting until I was in SECOND grade. Late bloomer? 139 pages, and I was so entranced – I agonized between never wanting it to end, and not being able to wait to finish it so that I could brag about it.
I love to read – and nothing makes me happier than hearing how my 4 year old is obsessed with books at her school. Of course I also remember wailing “she HATES books! she’ll NEVER read!” when she was – oh 10 weeks old or something. Times change!
Black Beauty
I remember reading Beverly Cleary books as early as second grade.
The weekly trip we made to the bookstore was the highlight of my life!
I don’t remember the name, but it was about the founder of Girl Scouts. The most notable thing about that book was that the heroine was deaf in one ear because somebody threw rice at her wedding and one piece ended up, you guessed it, in her ear.
I don’t remember my first chapter book, but I do remember being incredibly pleased with myself when I read my first book that was 300 pages long! I think it was “Dancing Shoes” or “Ballet Shoes,” one of that series. It was so very long! I was so very proud!
I’m not a writer, but I still love to read. And our weekly (or more often) trips to the library are the highlight of my eight year old’s week. We rotate among three different branches for variety in paperbacks.
Alexa – thank you for answering my question. What a delightful post! ;-)
I too was a quite, um, creative weaver of tales growing up. Reading was a passion from a very early age but the first honest to goodness chapter book I remember with awe was “Boxcar Children”. Not the new series, but the old fashioned, long chapter book that started it all: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boxcar_Children. My third grade teacher read it to us and I begged her, pleaded with her, to take it home or at least read the next chapter ahead of the class…alas, she refused.
I’m not sure if it was my official first chapter book (my Mom is a teacher so I suspect I was given others before third grade) but it was the book that taught me the wonder of the suspenseful chapter, the amazement of the cliffhanger.
Thanks for sharing!
Melissa
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe is the first one I remember. I don’t recall how old I was. My mom and I would sit in our living room, on our horrid green and yellow striped fuzzy couch, alternating who would read a chapter, reading two chapters every night. Our “45 minutes of reading every day” was more like 2 or 3 HOURS during the week. She’d catch me in my room, under my covers, with a flashlight and a book. To this day a good book can keep me up for days on end, luckily now I can keep the light on!
“Ponies of Mykyllengi,” about Icelandic children threatened by a blizzard and an earthquake and a volcanic eruption on the SAME DAY (god it was great), and I read proposals all the live-long day, so if you want a jaundiced eye, feel free to email me.
I was such a bookworm as a kid. I, too, would look forward to my weekly trips to the library, where the librarian knew my card number by heart and made me feel special. I don’t recall my very first chapter book but I read Beverly Cleary (the Ramona books) in first or second grade.
i don’t recall the first chapter book, but i do remember the first book that i read that made me cry. it was The Outsiders and it was then that i realised the power that books would have on my life.
I can’t wait for your book to be published. Because it will be.
Another “Charlotte’s Web” girl over here. I still have my childhood copy and it’s one of my most treasured possessions.
OMG, my sister had a rabbit she named BunBun when we were kids! I wonder if she read this book… Hmmm.
I don’t recall the first chapter book I ever read. I remember thinking in kindergarten that I HATED reading, that I would NEVER read for fun and no one could make me. Ha. Now I read about 40 books a year and have a frighteningly long book of books I want to read.
Beverly Cleary, Enid Blyton, Doctor Doolittle, The Five Friends Mysteries. I actually read every single children’s book at my village library by 5th grade. Ahem, yes I love reading.
I don’t think this was the first one but the first book I REMEMBER is Ramona Quimby: Age 8. It’s also the first chapter book I read over and over until it fell apart. The first of many :)
The first ones I remembered with clarity were the Little House on the Prairie series, and my Mom had an old set, the kind with yellow brown pages that smell well OLD…… to me the pages and the smell were nearly as much a part of the story (when we had to buy a newer book because one was missing, I felt sad because I was missing out on the look, feel and smell of the others)…… to say I read these books over and over again would probably be an understatement, I lost track of the number of times I flew through the series (I still have the set of books and I cant wait to introduce them to my kids)…. I also loved classics and every year for Christmas I got one or two, hard back BEAUTIFUL books, the call of the wild, Little Women, Little Men, The Five little Peppers and how they Grew, Black Beauty, Heidi, The Secret Garden….just to name a few…… I also read most of them SEVERAL times.
The funny thing is my niece and I are so much alike in this, we both LOVE to read (and both have one lazy eye and its even the same eye)……….last year in Kindergarten she read over 500 books (in excess of actual assigned reading), this year she is poised to knock that figure out of the water and she is reading chapter books like there is no tomorrow. I LOVE IT!
I recently came across this intruiging article about agents who are looking for writers… http://www.writersdigest.com/article/28-agents-who-want-your-work/
I honestly can’t remember if it was Charlotte’s Web, Beverly Cleary, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, Pippi Longstocking or Harriet the Spy, but they all came early on.
The Velveteen Rabbit. I don’t remember if it had chapters, but it was a paperback, which had a very officious feel to it.
I wouldn’t swear that it was the first one ever, but the first chapter book I remember reading is Little House in the Big Woods. I got it from family friends the Christmas I was 5. My mother and I took turns reading it out loud to each other because my eyes weren’t strong enough to sit and read it all at once, which was definitely what I wanted to do.
The first “real” book I read was “Alice and Wonderland.” My dad and I read it out loud together and I was 5. After that we read “The Hobbit.” I was in Kindergarten and could already read, so I didn’t get to work on the fun “letter people” (Ms. A and Mr. B, etc.) with the rest of the kids. I had to do SRA color-coded workbooks. I also couldn’t tie my shoes.
I also made up lots of stories to get attention, like the tale of how my sister got sprayed by a skunk (not true), or how one day, in a gravity-defying moment, I went all the way over the top of the swingset in the swing (impossible).
I received the Ramona Quimby series for Christmas and did not open another gift. I read the entire box set in a flash. Off to much bigger things, like Nancy Drew. Great post!
I think the first one I read alone was “The Owl who was afria if the Dark” by Jill Tomlinson…
I of course mean “Afraid”…
I can’t remember the first book I read myself — my dad used to read chapter books to me every night when he tucked me in, and I read to myself literally since I can remember. I’m sure it was either: Ramona Quimby, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe or Charlotte’s Web, which I made my dad read about 100 times. Or Little House. Actually, I read all of those multiple times. Oh, books. I love you.
The very first one was in kindergarten, and it was some kind of unfortunate “Dick and Jane” breed of badness. In fact, I’m pretty sure it was D & J. I think I knew at the time that it was bad. The first one that I remember being proud of reading, and actually enjoying, was The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.
James and the Giant Peach. I then moved on to Little House in the Big Woods which is still the only Laura Ingalls Wilder book I’ve ever read. That book was responsible for my love of food writing/reading about food. The snow packed into cake pans and pie tins and drizzled with maple syrup so the syrup turns into candy… who wouldn’t love that? FYI: the maple-flavored corn syrup DOES NOT achieve these results.
The Incredible Journey sticks out in my head.
Phooeyland? Brilliant concept – reminds me of the Guggenheim in Bilbao, you know? with metal scales. Yeah, you beat Gehry to it.
Enid Blyton’s Noddy books were my book of choice in my first year of school and the six I read that year still have pride of place in my bookshelf. Been an avid reader and sporadic writer ever since.
Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume. Totally got me hooked on reading!!!
No idea! I know I loved the Oz series, and that was pretty early. But I have clear memories of reading Asterix comics in 1st grade. No wonder I wound up the way I did.
Oooh I dont remember the first book.. but I loved and still collect all the old Bobbsey Twins books! My mom had them when she was a child and I got them after! (now MY daughter reads them.. but I make her put them RIGHT back in my cupboard!!!)
My husband says I eat a book every other day, and he is probably right!
I love your posts for this reason exactly… little mini books a day! I’ll buy your book!!! Hurry! ;o)
I think mine was Ramona Quimby, Age 8. I went on a big Beverly Cleary rampage after that. I swooned a few weeks ago when my 7 year old brought home a Scholastic order form and it was available through them.
It was “Little House in the Big Woods” for me too. I was 6. I quickly read the entire series. My mom made me a pioneer girl dress complete with pinafore and bonnet as a Hallowe’en costume. I wore it to school regularly. Then I grew up and moved from just outside Vancouver, BC to the flat, flat prairie of Saskatchewan. The move wasn’t because I wanted to be Laura, but I think those books had a deep and lasting effect on me.
Pretty sure that mine was Little House in the Big Woods. I’ve been fascinated with history and how we do things (build a cabin, make butter, sew) from then to now. I’m pretty sure that the fascination excuses my not being able to do any of the things. Right? Right??
It was Stuart Little. I loved that book!
I don’t recall the first book I read but I know when I was in 4th grade I had to get special permission from the library in our home town to check out books from outside the children and young adult sections. Because I had read every single last one of them (we lived in a small town so the selection wasn’t too expansive but it was a lot of books…I would check out two or three a week). My only regret from reading so many books so fast is now I can remember a plot from them but I can’t think of the title and that drives me to some insane googling. I wish I still had time to read two or three books a week.
Can’t say for sure this is the first but it is the first one I remember. “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo”.
I don’t remember my first chapter book but I can vividly recall my first encounter with the school library and how intoxicated and positively giddy I was when I learned that I could take books home!
Imagine my chagrin when I wasn’t allowed to have the pick of the whole library since I was too young. I can clearly recall my disdain for the librarian and can feel the anger creeping back at the mere thought of her, 3oish years later.
I would love to see some of your early writings from grade school. I occasionally will get out things I’ve written from grade school and elementary just to chuckle. I’m sure your writings are far more entertaining. :D
Pretty sure it was something by Judy Blume, though I think the first that was read to me (my parents started reading chapter books early) was an original Heidi or perhaps Charlotte’s Web.
I can’t remember the first “chapter” book I read, but I do remember mastering Dick and Jane with inflection and all. I remember being so gleeful that the other kids weren’t doing that yet. Just that “Dick and Jane” was my first book should explain why I can’t remember.
Hmm…was it the Laura Ingalls Wilder books? Those were good!
The first book that I got absolutely absorbed in to the point where I was unaware of my surroundings was Little House in the Big Woods, in second grade, DURING CLASS. I resurfaced in the middle of a math test.
Babysitters Club. Loved em. Devoured em. Moved onto my mom’s romance novels and never looked back.
I don’t remember the *first* book I read, but I do remember becoming unnaturally obsessed with those choose-your-own-adventure books. I thought that the person who wrote them (as if there was only 1 person, duh) was THE MOST GENIUS OF ALL GENIUS PEOPLE ON EARTH. I wrote many of my own but, for the obvious reasons related to a complete lack of surprise, never really enjoyed them. By the 3rd grade, I got wild about the Douglas Adams books (Hitchhiker’s Guide and the like) then proceeded to talk in complete jibberish. Not much has changed since then…
The Little House books. Got the set for Christmas in the 3rd grade and read them cover to cover by New Years as my grandmother told me “stop reading so much or you’ll hurt your eyes and need glasses.”
You know, Alexa, you could still be a spy if you wanted. Spies need a cover, and freelance writer is the perfect one, because you could do it anywhere. Except I don’t know what you’d do about Simone. Maybe she could be a spy, too?
Unfortunately, I don’t remember the first chapter book I read, although I read almost every book in my elementary school library (except for the Hardy Boys and other too boyish things).
B is for Betsy.
I can remember exactly where the book was in the library in Bell, CA so that when I visited CA as a teen, that was the first walk I took from my grandparents house. And it was still right where it belonged.
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass was the first big one for me. Still my favorite book of all time.
As for agents, you would be wise to invest in the most recent copy of Writer’s Market which comes with a handy CD that allows you to sort agents (and publishers) by genre and track all your submissions. Kinda like having a personal admin except that you actually have to lick all those stanps and envelopes yourself. Perhaps Simone can put all those droolies to good use?
I’m enjoying being reminded of all the books I enjoyed as a child. Some of the commenters have mentioned remembering plots but not titles. I thought I’d share a great site I ran across a while back, where people help eachother find lost titles.http://loganberrybooks.com/
I’ve enjoyed just reading through their lists of “found” books and looking up some of my old favorites to see if anyone else remembers them.
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