My earliest reading memory I have a very clear memory of reading Fun With Dick and Jane. I was four years old, and my dad wrote each word on a chalkboard. I memorised them, then opened the book and read them back to him.
When I was older, I stumbled across the book and was surprised to find Dick and Jane didn’t really have all that much fun. My favourite book growing up Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh. Eleven-year-old Harriet Welch wants to be a writer, and her nanny encourages her to keepa notebook so she can practise writing every day.
But when the other kids at school find her book (which is filled with her meanest, most vulnerable thoughts), she quickly becomes the school pariah. I must have read this story a hundred times. Harriet Welch was the reason I started writing stuff down.
She was also the reason I understood that no matter how hard it feels, it is imperative to own and apologise for your mistakes. The book that changed me as a teenager To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Scout’s voice grabbed me from the start.
It was a deep dive into racism, poverty, hatred and social justice, and it had a direct impact on how I saw the world. The writer who changed my mind Henry David Thoreau. But it’s hard to get work from a mountaintop, so I settled for living deliberately in my tiny, overpriced, noisy, too-hot apartment.
Survival comes in many forms. The book that made me want to be a writer Fun With Dick and Jane! I was in love with reading from the very beginning, and writing a story seemed like the obvious next step.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
