I Was Always a Writer

As early as age seven, I was a writer. Couldn't spell worth a damn, but boy could I write. I wrote religiously in my diary, starting every day with "I woke up." Later, I became the historian for our family vacations, writing a daily journal of the locations and activities, which was read at the end of the trip. This reading, in front of my family, was the positive feed back that feed my writing fever.

Entering writing contests and actually winning when I was in 7th and 8th grades, showed me the money side of writing, which was the frosting on the cake for a 14 year old. My love of writing moved into journalism in high school where I was one of the writers of the infamous spoof of our high school newspaper called Wow Wow, instead of Pow Wow. This was during the early 70s, so it makes sense that the satrical stories about drugs filled the pages. We wrote and published the newspaper off campus and distributed it during school. My first taste of pirate journalism.

In college I took more journalism classes and ended up with an internship at the L.A. Times, but not as a writer, but as a photojournalist. It is then that I discovered something pecular. When I was a photographer, editors would say, "Don't worry about the caption. We'll have a writer take care of that." When I was a writer, submitting to various magazines, the editor would say, "Don't worry about the pictures. We'll have a photographer take care of that." When I moved into freelance work, I would send in an article and then say I knew a photographer who could supply the photos for an additional fee! Worked like a charm.

It wasn't until I was divorced and the kids had grown up, that I moved into fiction. What a joy! Now I get to make up all the "facts" and put words in people's mouths. You can't imagine how many times I want to do that as a journalist when the person I'm interviewing is stumbling over their words.

My vision of the future will have me retired from my "real job" as a journalist and only writing romantic comedy. I'll be sitting in my new home office, looking out at the view of the front yard. My husband will be working in the garden as I type away. Sighhhhh. Can't wait. What is your writing fantasy?