When did you know you wanted to be an author, and what opposition did you face as you followed your dream?

Ashlee Willis It was something I realized gradually. Both of my parents are creative people, and both of them were writers at the time I was growing up. We also happened to be good friends with a children's writer who lived a few blocks away from us while I was growing up, and he was constantly encouraging my dream as well. Between all of those things, I had so much support in all my first writing endeavors that becoming a published author someday seemed like such an obtainable dream!

I have probably been my own worst enemy in the process of following my dream. I constantly second-guess the quality of anything I write, I go up and down between thinking a story I've written is good, and thinking it is worthless. But being a part of the online social network of writers, as I've been these past months, has made me realize these are problems every writer deals with - and it's helped make them a lot more bearable to me!

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