Three days a week, I meet with other writers in Writing Room Prime on Zoom where we spend an hour focused on writing, plotting, or anything that advances our careers as writers. I've been asking the participants why they write. Here's my answer.
"Why I write has everything to do with a monkey. Although this is hard for me to believe now, I didn’t like reading when I was young. Words were never as interesting as playing. I was a slow reader and behind in my class. No one understood it because my marvelous siblings were already showing the brains they would be known for. But then, someone realized my vision was bad. I got glasses, and my world changed. In the summer between the first and second grades, I read my first book all by myself. That book was Curious George by Margret Rey and H. A. Rey. I don’t have many memories of my childhood, but I remember closing that book with a true sense of accomplishment and saying out loud, ‘I’m going to write books when I grow up!’ It took me a while, but eight books and several anthologies later, I have done just that. Thank you, George. May you never lose your curiosity and wonder about the world. And you know what, buddy? I hope I don’t either."
~ Stephen B. Bagley, author of Floozy Goes Forth
