Reader, Writer, Observer…
My parents claim I picked up a book at three and haven’t put one down since. Now, my family is fond of tales that stretch to just the other side of truth, but judging by old 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 an undergraduate degree in Radio-Television-Film at Northwestern University to a career in theater and film production and a return to school for an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. The release of my debut middle-grade novel, Journey to the Parallels, offered the next stop on my storytelling adventure. I’m so grateful for these opportunities and continue to follow my curiosity as I work on an adult novel, shorter fiction, and a middle-grade tale that includes (no surprise) a very resourceful squirrel.
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.
