Cataclysmic Event Led to Writing? No! by J Vincent

“What one event in your childhood had the greatest effect on your writing career?” is this month’s topic. If it had been cataclysmic I’m certain I would have remembered it. Unfortunately it was not. After much consideration I’ve come up with one thing.
It’s not really an event; I’m not even certain it happened as I think it did.

But there came a day in my in my childhood when one of my younger brothers or sister asked me to tell them a story. I don’t recall if it was to make up a tale about the clouds which I know became a favorite of theirs. Or was I asked to make up a saga about the stars! Perhaps they asked for an adventure using the articles and maps found in the Reader’s Digest.

We had chicken houses and a tool garage north of our house. A single lane size track circled these and connected to the road. Across the road was a milk barn, a sheds for the cattle and huge hay and equipment storage shed. There were wonderful maps to be found in the Reader’s Digest about ancient Egypt for example. Various buildings around the farm would become Thebes, Giza, or Alexandria. The Red Flyer wagon mom used to pull the laundry baskets to the wash line so she could hang up the laundry became our papyrus boats or a dahabeya, a luxury pleasure boat for the Nile. The calves in the calf pen were camels. A side benefit to this was that we knew any country we “explored” better than any of the kids we knew.

So I was asked to tell stories. I found I enjoyed doing so. I still do. Merry Christmas!