To this day if you ask my dad he’ll tell you that at the ripe young age of 3 years old I was reading the reader’s digest cover to cover.  That’s not entirely true – there were still a few words I didn’t understand, but I did love to read.  I would pick it up and look through it.  I would read my picture books but I was hungry for more.

My brother, on the other hand, was not.  He didn’t care to read, still doesn’t. Even now he will most likely only read a book if it’s on tape.

When I was still 3 years old I remember sneaking into my brother’s room.  On his sparse book shelf, on the very bottom shelf sat a blue box with 9 blue books inside.  I grabbed one and saw the picture of a little girl on the cover.

Then I started reading.

For weeks I would sneak into his room and read pages of this fascinating book until finally I got the courage to say “He won’t read this. It’s for GIRLS,” and took that box of books right out of his room.

Until I graduated high school I read those 9 books over and over again (It was 18 times from the time I stole them until the day I graduated).

Laura Ingalls story fascinated me.  All of it.

The way they lived. Traveled. What they ate. What they sang. What they WORE. Oh, what they wore kept me even more enthralled (still does, but that’s another post).

I wanted to live it, breathe it, learn it.

The first thing I really wrote was a play based on Plum Creek, which I performed with my best friend and several other friends in 6th grade.  I wrote papers about Laura in high school. I read biographies.

I branched out.  I learned more about the late 1800’s. Read up on the Old West. The people, the way of speech, the way of life.

Rich folk, poor folk, everyone in between.  I couldn’t get enough.

I watched Dr. Quinn with rapt attention, noting historical inconsistencies, but enjoying the setting anyway.  Long after that was gone Deadwood came along.  Once it was out on DVD and we had netflix, I watched every episode of that as well.

Once I started to write, I tried to write other genres, time periods, but every time it fell flat.  When they say to write what you know, they mean it.

I’m certain I’m not the only one inspired, or enthralled by, Laura’s books.  Even now if I’m feeling uninspired or just need a “comfort book” (the way some people need comfort food), these are the first things I grab. I love to be By the Shores of Silver Lake, or see The Happy Golden Years again.  My first box of these books are very dogeared and worn down – so they reside in a place untouched by human hands now and I’ve got a new set to read to my girls…but I will never toss the old ones out. They are my first real books – ones I will always hold dear to my heart.