Reader, Writer, Observer…
The story told by my parents is that I picked up a book at three and haven’t put one down since. Now, my family is fond of stories that stretch to just the other side of truth, but judging by family photos and the dog-eared nature of the books I owned back then, there’s plenty of evidence to support their claim.
As a shy, anxious, and extremely nearsighted kid, reading gave me ways to safely venture into the “Big World.” When the weather was warm enough, I’d spend hours reading in our backyard, where I’d feed the nuts my mother gave me for a “healthy snack” to our resident squirrels. The squirrels, our backyard, and my fondness for words merged into my earliest story attempts, which featured (no surprise) a squirrel engaged in various tellings of found a nut, lost a nut, found a nut. Ah, the stressful search! Ah, the confounding nature of loss! Those efforts soon broadened to include human characters seeking to navigate the equally confounding landscape of contemporary society.
Storytelling followed me into my adult life starting with my undergraduate degree in Film at Northwestern University to my work behind-the-scenes in the entertainment industry, and a return to school for an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. And now I’m embarking on a new storytelling adventure with the release of my debut middle-grade novel, Journey to the Parallels.
Marcie: Then and Now
Since I write for both adult and young readers, I thought I’d share a few ways Child Me compares to Adult Me.
