Inspy Romance

Inspy Romance—Fall in Love With a Good Book

When I Grow Up

by

Often, I hear writers talk of how, when they were little girls, they’d write their own stories, sometimes dreaming of being an author one day. I was not one of them. I did not enjoy creative writing in school and was not an avid reader—mostly Enid Blyton books when I did. I do remember the Famous Five and Secret Seven books fondly though. Oh yes, and comics … those count for reading, don’t they? Archie, Jughead, Richie Rich, Little Dot, Big Ethel, etcetera, etcetera. In high school, I struggled through Shakespeare, The Great Gatsby, and other set reading books.

Through my later teens and early twenties, I enjoyed a few romances and Wilbur Smith books. I guess my true love of reading Christian fiction began when my brother, an avid reader with a capital A-V-I-D, introduced me to Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker. From there, I discovered Eric Wilson and Brandilyn Collins before transitioning into the contemporary and historical Christian romance / Women’s Fiction books of Liz Curtis Higgs, Francine Rivers, Karen Kingsbury, and Angela Hunt. Some transition, huh?

It was only closer to my fortieth birthday, when I felt the desire to write, and nearer my fifties when my passion for writing contemporary Christian romance was born. I love what God has called me to do. Even though I regret not having had an early start, I have found that you are never too old to learn. And never too old to do what God has created you to do. My friend, Ann Goodfellow, published her first Prayer and Devotional book when she was 70 years of age, and she has subsequently published more books in the years that have followed. My late aunt wrote her matric (Tenth grade or Year 11) when she was 70. Never too old…

I use the opportunities I can to try and instill a love of reading and writing in my grandkids. Often, I’ll help ten-year-old Phoenix with his creative writing, gently guiding him to excellence in the stories he has to write for school. And sometimes, I’ll wonder whether any of them will walk in my footsteps and become writers too. One can hope because, even though it’s a tough profession with long, hard hours of work, it’s also an extremely rewarding one. When you get those reviews or emails or messages from a reader that tell you what a particular story has meant to them … well, that makes it all worth it.

This photo I took of my granddaughter inspired me to write this blog, and also ask a few of my author friends to share their “When I grow up” stories.

A sign of things to come?

So please read the wonderful childhood stories from my friends, Narelle Atkins, Dianne J. Wilson, Laurie Larsen, and Autumn Macarthur.

The Faraway Tree series by Enid Blyton were my all-time favourite childhood books. My mum would read to me at bedtime for hours, and she lost count of how many times she read through the series. Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven and Famous Five series were my other favourites. I wanted to grow up and be an author like Enid Blyton. ~ Narelle Atkins

Painfully shy — that was me. I hardly spoke around people I didn’t know, died inside on ‘speech day’ at school and had zero ambitions of growing up to be anything other than a home-body. I would play in the garden for hours while my imagination ran riot. I didn’t once think I could write a whole book.

I didn’t love school, but I loved words and I loved reading. I flew under the teacher’s radar at all times except when I wrote stories. They noticed me then. That’s when the gold stars, the full marks and the glowing comments would finally come my way. You’d think writing books would show up on my horizon then, but, nope, nothing!

It was only after I’d left school and had some freelance writing success that I started to dream of writing meaningful things and the book penny dropped. The soil had been successfully tilled all through school and the idea took root and grew. I’m currently working on my seventh book and loving being an author! ~ Dianne J. Wilson

I was always the kid who wrote stories. My mom would read them dutifully, always telling me how much she enjoyed them. I must’ve done some early market research because at the age of eight, I wrote a really sad story. The main character’s dog ran away, she fell off her horse and broke her leg and a family member died. My mother must’ve thought I was going through some emotional turmoil. She asked me why my story was so sad. I announced, “Happy stories don’t sell, Mom. Something bad always has to happen!” Which isn’t too far from the way I write books now! ~ Laurie Larsen

I wrote stories from as soon as I learned how to make letters at about age 6! As a kid, I used to make my own “books”, handwritten and illustrated stories stapled together into booklets. As I grew up, I kept writing — poetry, short stories, articles — but it wasn’t till my late forties I started writing seriously. Actually finishing a full-length story rather than giving up after a few chapters. God is good, and only when I came back to Him after my wilderness years and started writing Christian stories did it all come together for me. I can’t imagine ever NOT writing now! ~ Autumn Macarthur

What about you? What did you want to be when you grew up?

Marion Ueckermann (70 Posts)

USA Today bestselling author, MARION UECKERMANN’s passion for writing was sparked when she moved to Ireland with her family. Her love of travel has influenced her contemporary inspirational romances set in novel places. Marion and her husband again live in South Africa and are setting their sights on retirement when they can join their family in the beautiful Cape.


Comments

  1. I had no idea growing up, and beyond, what I wanted to do. I fell into nursing and loved it.

  2. Firstly I loved Enid Blyton as a child.
    I wanted to be a hairdresser from about the age of 5 and then when I started High school I heard a song Nobody’s child and really wanted to work in an orphanage. I did apply to be a hair dresser but at the time there were not many places but a lot of people applying

  3. I wanted to be a meteorologist. I’m still a bit of a weather geek. But God had other plans. I ended up at a seed company as a lab technician in plant pathology. Did id for over 30 years and loved it.

  5. Totally loved Enid Blyton’s books when I was in middle school — especially Secret Seven and Famous Five. Memories!

    What a blessing you are to your grandchildren, Marion!

  6. I am the youngest of five, an “afterthought.” Three of my older sisters were nurses, and I remember announcing I wanted to be a doctor so I could boss them all around! That went by the wayside when I realized there would be blood, guts, and gore. No, thanks.

    I did start dozens of stories when I was a kid, but they all fizzled out pretty quickly. I didn’t connect the stories I loved (Heidi, the Five Little Peppers, the Borrowers) with the fact someone wrote them. When I clued in that ordinary people might happen to write stories, I was intrigued and got started learning about the craft in my early 40s.

    After I bit I realized those ordinary people were actually very weird and only appeared normal, but by then I was hooked, and it was too late.

    Oops.

  8. I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up but the closed I got to that was a teacher’s aide for two years when my children were really young. I did not end up going into teaching but have always loved reading and still do. When I was growing up I read a lot of Nancy Drew Mystery books.

  9. I probably wanted to be a a myriad of things when I grew up, far too many to be realistically pursued…lol!

    When I was 17, I wanted to join the Air Force after graduation the next year because I wanted to fly the jets. But the recruiter I talked to told me I needed to have 20/20 vision & I wear glasses so that idea went out the window. Then in my senior year of high school , I decided I wanted to follow in my dad’s footsteps and take CAD CAM (computer aided drafting/ computer aided math) in college to become someone who draws up blueprints for construction companies or a similar job like that. But then I found out the amount of higher math I needed to take when I did a college entrance exam & that idea when out the window as well. Then my life took a complete detour about a year or so after graduation when a long-term relationship/engagement broke off (not by me) and I lost myself for a few years after that. Too many things happened in my life to want to go into here, but in 1994 I decided I wanted to go into nursing like my mom who’s a retired LPN now. So I went through CNA classes at a local nursing home. I loved the job & taking care of the residents! After I passed the class, I saw how CNA’s were often mistreated by the nurses and decided that wasn’t for me.

    All that to say, God had other plans for me. Instead of becoming all the things I wanted to be, I became a stay-at-home mom, full time wife & homemaker, and now my husband and I have guardianship of our 6 year old grand-girl. So it seems the cycle has repeated itself….God was training me the whole time for such a time as this! I feel very fulfilled in my role, I know I am where God wants me to be doing what I need to do to provide for my grand-girl. Even with her online schooling right now (what a learning curve that is!) & the stress of the situation, I wouldn’t trade a job where I could make a six figure income for this.

    I like to vicariously live out the careers through the characters in a book :-)

  10. I actually wanted to be a park ranger when I was a kid, but Mom kinda didn’t like that idea, and it went by the wayside, along with teaching and nursing. I used to work in the medical field, though, as a biller/coder, and now I use what I learned doing that to sell health insurance! Plus, I do work as a proofreader, as it’s much easier for me to find someone else’s mistakes than my own typing errors! I’ve always loved to read, and some of my favorites from childhood were the Bobsey Twins and Nancy Drew.

  11. I wanted to be a nurse when I was in HS, I never really pursued it. The closest I got to Nursing was I was a Nurses’ aide at a Nursing Home. Later I had different jobs, but My very favorite and Best job I have ever had and will ever have is the one of being a Mom. I have 3 grandchildren. I am now retired and loving what I do, just being a mom and a granny and of course a wife. I am so happy that you became an author and we get to read your books. Our daughter and our son in law are both RN’s , so I did not become a Nurse, but I have my own 2 personal nurses. :) Have a great rest of the week and stay safe. Thank you so much for sharing your growing up years and especially your books. God Bless you and your family. I myself loved reading the comic books you said, plus more.

  12. I always wanted to be a teacher, and I did become one. Like you Marion, I wasn’t much for reading when I was younger. I did read a few romances, and I actually did like to write my own stories. But I never pursued writing until I was in my mid-thirties. I wrote and submitted books for 20 years before I finally sold one to Love Inspired. Now I enjoy being an indie author, because I can write what I please.

  13. I wanted to be a mom, thought I’d have a glamorous career, and be a writer. Two out of three is good, and I no longer want the glamorous career.

  14. Hi. I wanted to be a marine biologist when I grew up – I loved Jacque Cousteau specials. Growing up in landlocked US in the late 60’s-70’s, I was discouraged from that. So, 30 years later, I was absolutely Thrilled to finally get scuba certified with my hubby as a BD gift. Still landlocked and 12 yrs later, we still plan vacas around shore diving destinations.
    Some dreams never die – they just need tweaking. <3 (I’m thrilled my hubby understood my quiet, not entirely crushed, dream).

  15. I thought I would be a college professor, an educator like my parents and so many others in my extended family. Duties outside of school during my grad school days put an end to that. I went on to do something else with my geeky interests like programming computers to help fly satellites. I grew up with stories, both reading and being read to. The Hardy Boys and Sherlock Holmes were among my favorites and sci-fi as well. I have always done little creative writing things: short fiction, poetry, humor, but only in the past year at the ripe old age of 60 have I taken on the task of a novel. Still learning and it continues to be fun.

  16. When I was growing up, I wanted to read, read and more reading, but I also loved to memorize and I was very, very good at it. Now that I am old, I still want to read, read and read, but memorize, forget that, I can barely remember what I read yesterday, haha Strangely enough, I can still remember all the scriptures and poems I memorized as a child and youth, but nothing new sticks now.

  25. Thanks so much for sharing your beautiful and interesting story, Trixie. And I know exactly what you’re talking about with that online schooling. I had several months earlier this year teaching my two grandsons. That was “fun”. I am proud to say that his math grade has improved :)

  31. Thanks so much for sharing your story, Lincoln. Helping fly satellites sounds like fun. Reminds me of the movie, October Sky. As I said, you are never too old to learn or take on new challenges. All the best with that novel.

  35. My favourite book was Tuppeny, Feefo and Jinx – I wanted to grow flowers too!
    Later I wanted to be a nurse just like my grandma, thank goodness that didn’t happen :D

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