How did your journey begin?

[Fred Gallney]

My journey began, oh when I was ten or eleven or so. I had read Lord of the Rings, and thought Eragon was the best thing on the planet, as well as Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series (which I still like). Much like Scorpion, I thought I could do something as good as or even better than Eragon. In that very same year I wrote 100 pages of writing, averaging about 8 pages a day, before I trailed off.

Since then I've "written a lot of prologues but never any endings" as my father frequently likes to tell me.

But now I am actually well on the way to completing a fantasy novel. Plus I have four other solid plans for projects. One of which has been with me for years. However, it will be a while before I feel "ready" to wrestle with this "massive epic fantasy".


OFF TOPIC: Auras_Battle, I see you're a network engineer. Do you perform any penetration testing for network integrity?

[Colony]

Ah I love this question. My story started when I was 5, but that part is useless (I did win an award in school though, something like "Next Stephen King" or something stupid. It was in kindergarten for goodness sake.).

My next story was a short story that I worked on for days... It was horrible, way too cute for my taste. I was 10.

My new story, and my new life as a writer, has brought me down to the dark realm of SF/F. It was inspired by an old group I belonged to, the Order of the Abyss. I was known as Marauder, and the two other members were Tyrant and Knight (I was 13-14).

In this time, many call me Colony (Xbox Live is the reason.), and I have grown fond of my past in the Order, so much so that I began writing, so here we are now (I am 16 now).

[Auras_Battle]

OFF TOPIC: Auras_Battle, I see you're a network engineer. Do you perform any penetration testing for network integrity?

Hello Fred

I do not perform penetration testing. I have very little on the job experience with network security. My background is in Routing and Switching in the Service Provider environment.

[Sterling13]

I took the standard Hobbit->Lord of the Rings->Other Fanasty route to really get into the genre.

Writing, however (its odd that I remember this specifically)... I was closing up the pro shop of the golf course I worked at (summer job during highschool and college), with the end step being to take a cart around the 18 holes and collect the pins. The total boredom that is this task started my mind wondering... and I remember putting pen to paper that very night.

[PeterWilliam]

My earliest writing is a great deal of paradoxical musings I called poetry. I
was, largely, inspired by the song lyrics of The Tragically Hip albums Up to Here, Road Apples, Fully, Completely and Day for Night. I would have to say that, as far as ad-libbing and extemporaneity goes, Gordon Downie is my favorite story teller.

[Holbrook]

Ten years ago, after doing the career, the stay at home mum, housewife etc, etc I wondered if I could actually write a book for fun, for me, just ot see if I could. So I began to do that, I enjoyed the research, and the writing. I slowly found out I wasn't half bad, so began to get a bit serious and try to see if I could get something published. One book turned into four, (now five, six and seven are being worked on). Book one to three got mainly rejected, though two and three did raise some interest with a couple of agents (which suprised the hell out of me) Number four raised quite a lot of interest, and now I find myself with an agent, working to "his grand plan" for our attack on the publishing world!!

[tmso]

Number four raised quite a lot of interest, and now I find myself with an agent, working to "his grand plan" for our attack on the publishing world!!

Ah Holbrook, that's inspiring!! Congratulations and good luck.

[Window Bar]

As a fourth grade art project, each student was required to make a paper mache fish. Complete with all of the fins and the painting, this task occupied several art class sessions.

When the art teacher was at last out of the way, the regular teacher assigned each of us the task of writing a "fish story." Nope, we were not asked to lie about the number and size of fish we had caught, but to write a story starring our own particular paper mache fish as acharacter.

I must have written five such stories before branching out to other characters.

[E_Moon]

Ten years ago, after doing the career, the stay at home mum, housewife etc, etc I wondered if I could actually write a book for fun, for me, just ot see if I could. So I began to do that, I enjoyed the research, and the writing. I slowly found out I wasn't half bad, so began to get a bit serious and try to see if I could get something published. One book turned into four, (now five, six and seven are being worked on). Book one to three got mainly rejected, though two and three did raise some interest with a couple of agents (which suprised the hell out of me) Number four raised quite a lot of interest, and now I find myself with an agent, working to "his grand plan" for our attack on the publishing world!!

Wow! Hurray for you!

[Holbrook]

Tmso; thanks, I still have to pinch myself now and then to believe it.

E.Moon; thanks, the whole thing has been something of a dream, turned reality, and at times it is all rather frightening. By the way, I am with the Zeno Literary Agency,

[E_Moon]

You're so right--it is frightening when the dream begins to morph into reality. But it's a good kind of fear. Ride it for the thrills, don't be afraid of the spills, there's always another chance.

[Thelonious]

I've been reading for as long as i can remember, and most of it has been fantasy, whether i unearthed it from my dads collection or found it at the library. The Hobbit, LoTR, WoT, it was all there.

I was the type of kid who read stuff above the grade level (as i suspect most people on this forum were) and loved to listen to music while reading to create these perfect images in my head.

I had toyed with the idea of being a writer when i grew up while i was in school, but was content to simply read and enjoy others fantastical worlds and adventures. It was only until recently that i decided i had the chance to turn a new leaf (i had a problem with a depressive episode that still hasn't entirely resolved itself) and give writing my own thing a shot. So i started researching and laying the foundations for a world of my own.

I've never really felt sure about many things in my life but i know i'm going to get this thing done. I know the idea's a good one, and i have the time to build it up and execute it to my satisfaction.

I'm young, but this is what i want to do, you know?

[Farion]

I think I just read myself about six or seven times there, but I have to say, it was a little unnerving how close Mr. Fred Gallney was... he basically said what I was going to say, minus the Lord of the Rings, plus 2 years.

To clarify that comma-happy comment, I:
1. Actually liked Eragon
2. Thought I could do as good or better
3. Would probably kill for a copy of Lord Sunday
4. , however, have never read Lord of the Rings

Essentially, I am reminded of myself two years from now

[Inkstain]

For me it all began after I first read my best friend's copy of, The Sword of Shannarra, back in the 4th grade. From that point, I grabbed a notepad and began setting pen to paper. Back then, my plots were heavily influenced by Tolkien and Brooks. My prose however, still needed a lot of work. Still, I kept at it. It was during my sophomore year that I first had a taste of what it was like to see my name in print. My English teacher had submitted one of my short stories to a state wide writing contest for teens, I remember it having to do with dimensional jet-setting and saving the cosmos from man's stupidity. To be honest, I never considered the possibility of actually winning, I just needed the extra credit. Imagine my surprise when I found the annual Missouri Youth Writes anthology in my mailbox. I still didn't think I had won, since I figured anyone who submitted work received an issue. It was while leafing through the index and looking over the various section titles for poetry, essays and finally short stories that I recognized the title of the story section as being a phrase used in my story! And yes, of the two short stories that made it, mine was one of 'em.

Well, after that, I was sure that my destiny could not have been clearer had the ghost of Herbert George Wells, himself, came down to hand me a book deal and a Hugo. But however it may have seemed, it never turned out to be. At least not yet...