I decided to be a writer when I was a little kid typing out stories on my mothers' Royal typewriter. My big influence at that time was Walter Farley, author of the classic Black Stallion. At the same time I developed a huge crush on a young military school cadet who went to mass the same time as my family, so my earliest efforts involved my begin stranded on a desert island with a horse and a cadet. Being in fourth grade, I had no idea what to do with the cadet, so he spent his time fishing and making fires while I raced around the island on the horse. I' more...