Inspiration at its best

Cole, from Lau­rel, MS asks: “What inspired you to be a writer?”

When I was a boy, there were books in the house, and I saw my par­ents read. My moth­er read to my twin sis­ter, my broth­er, and me every night. Each Fri­day she took us to the local pub­lic library. In those days libraries were not as open, fresh, and wel­com­ing as they are today. As a child, I was only allowed to use the small cor­ner “Children’s Sec­tion.” Still, I had my own library card, and I could choose the books I want­ed. Every birth­day, every Christ­mas, I received a book. From a young age, I had my own library card and was able to walk to the library by myself and did.

Also, in walk­ing dis­tance was a used book­store. In a far dusty cor­ner was a children’s book sec­tion where I could buy books for twen­ty-five cents or less. Hard­ly a won­der, I was an ear­ly, and vora­cious, read­er. Then, too, there was radio, of which I was an avid lis­ten­er every day. Those adven­ture shows—meant for kids—were for the most part sto­ry­telling, though there was a lot of dia­logue. The only place where there was not a lot of real read­ing in my ear­ly life was school. We just had basal read­ers of the Dick and Jane type. All in all, I was sur­round­ed by books and read­ing. I sus­pect that’s what “inspired” me to be a writer. And, no coin­ci­dence, my twin sis­ter (Emi­ly Lei­der) is a writer, too.