Goodreads asked Michael Laird:

How do you get inspired to write?

Michael Laird I don't know that I've ever not been. When I was just out of fourth grade I recall trying to write a novel about two kids that are shrunk down and forced to live in a beehive with the bees. It was very frustrating when I realized I just didn't have the skills to do this yet. My high school graduation gift was an electric typewrite (don't laugh, I was the only boy in my high school typing class). Then I spent most of that summer dashing off short stories and mailing them out, I think I still have some very nice, multiple page, single-spaced, typed rejection letters from some names that have gotten rather more prominent over time. Like an idiot kid I assumed they didn't like my work.

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