We rented a farmhouse, unlikely as that sounds, because my mother was afraid of everything on the farm. I seem to remember that my brother and I were not allowed to touch anything, and were not encouraged to spend a lot of time outside--weird for kids living on a farm. I felt very isolated and buried myself in books. For the first time I realized that my family was hardly 'The Brady Bunch,' that, in fact, my parents were very unhappy and that our family functioned with difficulty.
"On some level I knew I'd grow up to be a writer, especially when my father yelled at me, I'd think, 'That's fine, I'll use this in a book someday.' My favorite game was something I called the Dot Kingdom. By connecting dots, I created all the people, dogs and houses in the kingdom. If I got angry with a character, I'd erase him. Quite a power trip--creating a whole world over which I had absolute control.
"Thank goodness for the local librarian. She gave me lots of wonderful books to read and generally let me know she cared. I devoured one book after another--Nancy Drew, Sue Barton, Cherry Ames, The Hardy Boys, all the landmark books.
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