Every Beginning Has A Start

Author F. Scott Fitzgerald

My start began with a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I was only three years old. Or maybe I started reading it by the time I was five years old. I think it was Tender Is The Night or was it This Side of Paradise? The first book was a gift from my father who had purchased it from the Salvation Army Goodwill store, which was located across from our house.

I remember being fascinated by the words on the page. A colleague at work said that he couldn't remember reading at such an early age, let alone reading Fitzgerald. I never said that I understood the big words, however, I said that the book transformed my life. I knew that I wanted to be a writer. My life had purpose.

I began a quest to find out as much as I could about Mr. Fitzgerald. I grew old enough to venture to the Glenville branch of the Cleveland Public Library on Parkwood Drive, and there I would browse the stacks to find the Fitzgerald books. My hands ran across the spines of books by men and women that I had never read. I would sit at the large wooden table and run my fingers across the words on the pages. This is what I wanted to do -- make words magically appear upon the page of a book.

Soon, I was confronted with a big question: How do I become a writer? I decided to read more about Fitzgerald. I read all of the novels and the short story collections so that I could become familiar with his characters and his style. I watched the film renditions of his books and found them always missing something. I became a student of the Roaring Twenties, and dreamed of lecturing on the authors of that period in a collegiate setting. However, I still didn't know how to become an author.

Interior of the Glenville Library

In the months and weeks to come, I hope to share more about my journey to become an author. At least now, you know something about my start--it began with F. Scott Fitzgerald.