As I’m starting work on the first fiction project in over a year a few happy memories surfaced.
Writers Are Born
I’ve been telling stories since I could talk. One of the fonder memories is a neighbor giving me a prayer book for my 1st Communion that had an inscription
To the little girl with a gift for gab.
Backstory
Larry (neighbor) would spend hours playing basketball with me, teaching me to toss it up since I was too young to throw overhand.
Marie (his sister who lived with them) spent hours while I painted her toenails telling me the virtues of reading and how it can enrich your life – discussing such classics as Welcome to the Monkey House.
She paid me for the pedicure.
Pat – a nurse – was at my bedside when I was coming out of the coma after a subdural hematoma.
Apparently, I snapped, “Don’t touch me your hands are cold!”
She later showed me their family room that had multiple bookshelves lined with books.
She invited me to come over and borrow any book any time and to talk about the book.
Ginsu Moment
There was another neighbor who picked up on my passion for reading.
When I was 6.
She invited me to her living room where several bookshelves lined with books awaited.
Thank You
I took every one of them up on the offer and so have an incredible rich early exposure to reading.
Fiction and non.
Psst – Pass It On
One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was my mom passing on a nugget of wisdom her mom gave to her. Start reading to your kids when they’re in your tummy. Move on to children’s books but introduce the love of reading from day one.
As someone who spent close to a year volunteering helping kids learn to read … I left one of my more challenging students with this response when he questioned why it was worth the effort
“Because once you know how to read you’ll never be lonely again.”
Elizabeth Maxim 
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