Sometimes I wish I lived a few generations ago. I mean, yeah, there are a lot of things that are easier and better about the times we live in, but I feel like being a writer was easier in a way back then. You know, back when publishers actually read unsolicited manuscripts and authors didn't have to "build a platform." L.M. Montgomery was grateful to work at the post office so her neighbors wouldn't see how many copies of the manuscript for Anne of Green Gables she sent to publishers, but at least she didn't have to query dozens of agents before even having a chance to have a publisher look at the manuscript.
I'm not actually out to whine, however. Overall I like the century I live in (2020 has been a real bear, but thankfully that doesn't speak to our time period as a whole) and, since this is the time I ended up in, building a platform is something I have to do. Thankfully, I'm really good at writing about myself and gushing about books I like, so I may be able to make a success of this :).
I don't remember learning to read. My mom says I learned in kindergarten, which was unusual for the early 1980's since formal reading skills weren't normally taught until first grade at that time. Some people remember a particular book that hooked them on reading. I don't. As far as I remember, I eagerly read anything I could get my hands on as a child. I loved books about horses and cats in particular, but I would happily pick up my older brother's The Three Investigators books as well.
If I remember correctly, it was third grade when I discovered Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising sequence, and, if I hadn't already loved books, those books would have fully won me over. She drew me into her world of Old Ones, Dark lords, and Welsh legends. I still dream of seeing the mountains of Wales someday thanks to her books, and I'd like to stop by Cornwall as well. Maybe I'll catch sight of the Greenwitch beneath the waves off the coast.
Sometimes I've wondered I am an introvert because I fell so deeply in love with books at such a young age or if I fell so deeply in love with books at such a young age because I'm an introvert. I suspect it's the latter. I wanted real living friends too, but I made a lot of friends within the pages of books. This was good since I wasn't, and still am not, all that great at making real live in person friends. I've become more outgoing as an adult, but by the time that had happened I'd already entered the phase of adulthood in which it's famously difficult to make new friends, so my timing wasn't that great :).
As a White, upper middle class girl without a visible disability (I have ADHD, but I didn't even know that as a child), it was really easy for me to see myself in the characters I read. Nearly all of the girls I read about didn't look radically different than I did, though some of them lived in fantasy worlds or long ago.
As a writer, one of my passions is to create characters who make kids who are less likely to be portrayed in books feel seen. Except for writing about kids with ADHD I often have to do a lot of research to make this happen and portray those characters well and with sensitivity, but I believe it's well worth my time. Once I manage to get a book published, if just one kid who has felt invisible feels seen after reading one of my books it will all have been worth it.
