Sometime people ask me how long I’ve been writing or what my first book was.
Well, the answer is I’ve been writing — or at least making up stories — for a long time. My first book, I’m afraid, had a derivative plot and characters who were thoroughly mired in gender stereotypical roles.
But hey, I was four. Or thereabouts. Nobody thought to date the story.
I do know I cut the pages from art paper by myself and pasted it all together with Elmer’s Glue — the clear, yellowy kind that was applied with the chiseled rubber top of the bottle. The title is written in my father’s handwriting.
This is my first book, THE GIRL AND THE DRAGON.
Not exactly ready for Amazon, but it always makes me laugh.
Get a load of her shoes!
Hey, that’s a very snazzy outfit and pretty good drawings for someone so young.
I always find it interesting that we come in basically doing what we’re here to do and then it sort of gets covered up. I wrote my first poem at 3. (It was about sheep.)
Love this post. It’s really fun.
Awesome that you wrote back then and saved this. That’s so cool. I always wish I liked writing as a kid, but I never imagined I’d write a book back then. I could have practiced and learned so much more that I’m having to play catch up with now.
Aww. I love that! You are obviously a born storyteller.
I LOVE THIS!! I think it’s so wonderful that you have held onto this 🙂
I’m impressed you still have it. And now I’m embarrassed I didn’t save any of my kids’ first stories.
It’s so great that you still have that! 🙂
That is awesome!!
Fab! You really nailed the pacing.
Hey, those shoes are not far off what you see on the runway these days. 🙂
I love that you still have it. That must be fun for your kids to look at.
Your parents must be pretty smart. I think they had a feeling back then that you were destined to be a writer. Why else would they have saved that for you? LOVE it. I wish I’d had the foresight to save some of the stuff I wrote as a kid.
Ha! I love it, and yes, those shoes are killer!
My first book (that I remember) was about a birthday with a bad ending. My sister and brother both remember it vividly so I must’ve done something right 🙂
Awwwwww, I love it! Thanks for sharing 🙂
It’s destiny.
Since you were four! That’s a long time. And you still nailed the illustrations. Thanks for sharing this Diane!
Hi Diane .. great drawings – amazing you were so young .. talented then and now …
Lovely to have that memory from days gone by … cheers Hilary
You were obviously ahead of your time – her shoes look just like Lady Gaga’s! lol
I was ahead of my time, too. I wrote a story with a secret agent’s car that talked from its dashboard when I was 11, and that was about 10 years before “Knight Rider.” Kind of a dubious accomplishment though…
That’s HILARIOUS! So did the dragon burn up in the end???
I wish I had Fury Woman. It was about this good. But I don’t know! 😀 <3