DL Hammons (Cruising Altitude 2.0) writes, "I’m proud to announce that on February 13th,
one of my cohorts from the Déjà vu Blogfest…Katie Mills (Creepy Query
Girl)…along with Alex J.
Cavanaugh and Matthew MacNish
(Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment), will be co-hosting with
me the ORIGINS
blogfest. Here’s a synopsis of what will happen on that date
for you to use in spreading the word: On
Monday, February 13th, you should post your own origin story.
Tell us all where your writing dreams began. It could be anything from
how you started making up stories as a child, or writing for the school
newspaper, or even what prompted you to start a blog. How about stories
about the first time somebody took an interest in your writing, or the
teacher/mentor that helped nudge you along and mold your passion, or maybe the
singular moment when you first started calling yourself a writer. It all
started somewhere and we want you to tell us your own, unique, beginnings."
Before I was
a reader or writer, I was a dreamer, an imaginer of worlds. We’re sometimes
called Pisces. *winks* A simple bus ride to school had me staring out the
window and daydreaming. Then, with reading, I couldn’t get enough of the
worlds, the characters writers created. Authors were like the coolest people
out there (still are).
These worlds
inspired me to play in them. First I started in Phantom of the Opera
role-playing games (RPGs). Then, I moved on to Harry Potter. I loved J.K.
Rowling’s world so much and couldn’t wait for the next books, so I decided to
write fan fiction. Why wait when I can make up my own stories using her world?
I enjoyed fan fiction and role-playing, but after hundreds of thousands of
words for almost ten years of time made me itch to try my own world.
In 2006, I
had the idea of taking one of my role-playing characters and create a world for
her of my own. This was the birth of Yssa and the Phoenix trilogy. I did nothing
with this world for three years, but I loved daydreaming about it.
I
really did come late to writing with publication in mind. I was almost
twenty-seven when I started my first novel (The
Phoenix Prophetess). I had started a new job a month before and found
myself with time on my hands. When I don’t have library work to do, I could do
anything I wanted—within reason, of course—so I decided to sit and start that
novel. I wrote the first chapter and sent it to my friend Christine Rains and
my sister Kara. They encouraged me to keep writing, so I did. Nine months later
I completed the first draft of The Phoenix
Prophetess. I had also brushed off two old short stories and started
submitting them. When I got my first acceptance from my first submission, I was
shocked and hooked. Everything took off from there, and I wouldn’t change a
moment of it now.
If
you told me ten years ago I would be a writer, I would’ve scoffed at the notion.
Me? A writer? Whatever. I was rather dismal in English classes. Grammar and
stuff I rocked. Paper writing, not as much. But I believe through time, I found
my place as a writer.
