About Me (or) How I Came to be a Writer

Looking back on it, I can now see that growing up to be a writer was inevitable; I have loved the written word since I was old enough to know what words were: how they looked, sounded, and the images they could conjure up in my mind's eye.

This article will be a record of the journey I didn't even know I was on, of which the ultimate result would be my becoming a writer.

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I learned to read at a very early age, probably in an effort to try to keep up with my older brother, four years my senior. He was really the prolific reader in the family, so, of course, I wanted to be one, too.

I don't know exactly when I learned to read, but it was definitely before I started kindergarten. I devoured books, starting with the classic children's books, including those written by Dr. Seuss.

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What better way to learn to read than with Dr. Seuss and his books. Talk about being taken to amazing places; Dr. Seuss certainly knew how to capture my imagination through his writing!

I was probably around ten or eleven years old when I started to read mysteries. You can blame my early introduction to the world of mystery writing and pulp fiction on my older brother.

He was captivated by the writing of Erle Stanley Gardner and was in the process of reading all the books published to that point featuring ESG's famous attorney/sleuth, Perry Mason. My older brother shared a bedroom with my twin brother and they had four or five shelves of books lining most of one wall, more than half of which were taken up with Perry Mason novels.

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When I was a kid, there was no such thing as the internet, computers, laptops, tablets, e-readers, or smartphones, just regular books I had to check out from the school or public library. Occasionally I would find myself without any fresh reading material; when that happed, I would read anything I could get my hands on.

I read most of the volumes of the early 1960s edition of the World Book Encyclopedia set we had at home, as well as our thirty-year-old Webster's dictionary, and our local telephone book, a skinny little thing, less than a quarter inch thick, including the business listings. I even went so far as to read the backs of cereal and tissue boxes, if that was all that was at hand.

I needed to read, almost as much as I needed to breathe.

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I was so happy when mom told me the bookmobile was going to be stopping just a mile north of our farm. That meant I wouldn't have to have anyone drive me to the public library in town; I could ride my bike and carry my selections safely home in my bike basket.

The only bad thing was that the bookmobile would only stop every other week and I was limited to just four books per visit. By that time, I was reading a book a day, so to make the most of my fortnightly bookmobile visits, I tried to find the thickest books I could, with the smallest print that was still readable.

Most of the people frequenting the bookmobile when I was there were housewives from neighboring farms. It didn't seem there were too many kids, other than myself, who were interested in doing any summer reading. That was fine, because it meant there were more books available for me.

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My husband has been encouraging me to write since we were married twenty-nine years ago, but it never occurred to me that I was a writer. I knew I was a reader, but a writer, not so much.

He and I have worked together just about every day of those twenty-nine years as independent painting contractors. We have done commercial and residential jobs, large and small. Along the way I have shown any of our customers who expressed an interest some simple 'how to' painting and decorating ideas they could do themselves, often writing detailed instructions to help them with their DIY projects.

We have also bought, re-habbed, and sold nine personal properties over the years, during which time we learned a great deal about demolition, contruction, roofing, siding, framing, drywall hanging, taping, mudding and sanding, finish carpentry, installing kitchen and bath cabinets, laying floor and wall tile, installing backsplash tile, wiring, plumbing, landscaping and more. In short, we have spent decades learning and putting into practice just about every skill needed to build and/or maintain a home.

For more than twenty of those twenty-nine years, we have especially enjoyed working with one interior designer in particular, with whom we developed a good working relationship, as well as a friendship. It was she who encouraged me to further develop my design skills and think about life beyond the paint brush.

Yet with all that, I still couldn't see myself as a writer. What would I write about and who would care to read it?

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In July 2011, it finally occurred to me that I should write a blog about everything I have learned and loved about homes, and I decided the perfect vehicle was to be a blog, START To Downsize. I wanted to use that medium to share all the knowledge I have accumulated over nearly three decades, in order to help people learn how to live well with less.

I am still writing articles for START To Downsize and began to write articles on Squidoo in March of 2012. I am also in the process of writing several e-books, as well as doing guest posts for a variety of different blogs on the web.

Who knows where this writing will take me; wherever it is, I'll probably write about that, too.

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Technology, especially all the new tablets, makes writing possible wherever you happen to be. Their compact size and capacious memory affords you the opportunity to research, write, edit and more while on the go .

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If you have been inspired by reading my article, why not give writing a try by joining Squidoo? It's free, it's easy and it's fun! Help and direction is always available, as much or as little as you like. You have nothing to lose and the world to gain.

Vector Squid artwork courtesy of Greekgeek, based on the original Squidoo logo

Take a moment to think about your favorite memory of writing:

Was it a high-school essay?

How about a particularly important letter to Santa?

Maybe it was a postcard written from the best vacation location EVER!

Please share your own special writing memory below -- many thanks!

KateHon