Why I Wanted to be an Author

I have been writing stories since the age of seven.

The teacher I had at the time was a huge fan of Roald Dahl and would always read his books to the class. There were three stories in particular which stuck with me; George’s Marvelous Medicine (which I hear now comes with a “Do Not Try This At Home” warning label), James and the Giant Peach, and of course, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. Stories of extraordinary things happening to ordinary people and this really captured my imagination; remaining at the core of nearly everything I have written since.

I then started to write my own tales  – starting with parodies of Roald Dahl’s work (I remember I wrote a story of children were invited to look around a toy factory ran by an eccentric toy maker). Not only did I find that my friends liked the stories I wrote but the actual writing process was so much fun.  It is ultimately this combination of  doing something fun that lets your imagination run wild, while at the same time entertaining people which ultimately led me to want to be an author. And now, as an adult, I continue to want to be an author, having written stories for so long, I really don’t know how to do anything else.