What Megan Whelan Turner says about being a writer:
"When I was ten I read a lot of great books, and when I couldn't easily find more, I decided I would be a writer and write stories of my own, even though it didn't sound as exciting as reading. The only impediment to beginning my career right then was that I couldn't think of anything to write.
"Joan Aiken said she saw stories all around her, prompted by everyday events. She also said (in her bio) that she'd been telling stories since birth and completed her first novel in Latin class when she was seventeen. And there I was ten years old without a rag of a story to call my own. Roald Dahl said he kept a notebook in which he scribbled his ideas so that he wouldn't forget them. This sounded sensible and I gave it a try. When I forced one out, it sounded like this: Write a story about a blind girl who wants to go to school and be like everybody else.
"What I produced was almost uniformly horrible, but I think that was because I didn't want to write anything that wasn't perfect and nothing comes out perfect the first time. I think that anyone who wants to write well has to write copiously first. But I didn't know that then, so I gave up on writing and spent seven years as a children's book buyer in various bookstores. Then my husband, who is a professor of English, got a grant to do research for a year in California and I left my job to go with him. I decided again to write, and I did. I produced short stories that I sent to Diana Wynne Jones. She recommended that I send them to Susan Hirschman at Greenwillow, who agreed to publish them, to my surprise. I had intended them as writing samples, hoping to interest Greenwillow in a novel if I ever wrote one.
"This was so easy and so surprising that it might contradict what I said earlier about a writer needing to write a lot before writing well, but I realize, in retrospect, I did write a lot-English compositions, answers to essay questions on science homework, college papers, and thankyou notes. Especially thank-you notes. My mother always supervised mine and she had high standards. In fact, my advice to anyone who wants to be a writer is to avoid reading any other author's biography. Spend your time on your thank-you notes."
from www.barnesandnoble.com
The Thief by Megan Whelan Turner. The first book in The Queen's Thief Quartet.
Gen -short for Eugenides- is safely locked away in the dungeon of the King of Sounis's megaron, a sort of Greek-like castle. Why? Because he had the nerve to brag that he could steal anything, including the King's coronation seal. And then he actually DID steal it. It looks like he will be in prison for a long time, but the King's magus -chief adviser- has other plans. He offers Gen his freedom if Gen agrees to help the Magus find and steal the sacred Gift of Hamiathes from its temple in the Kingdom of Attolia.
Gen has little choice but to accept the Magus's mission, which must be carried out in the utmost secrecy. The Magus arranges for a soldier named Pol and two princelings that Gen names Useless, the Elder -Ambiades- and Useless, the Younger -Sophos- to accompany them. In secrecy, they start on their journey from Sounis through the adjoining mountainous Kingdom of Eddis and into the hostile territory of Attolia. The arrogant princelings soon make it clear that they are insulted to be traveling with such a common thief as Gen, and there is much friction between them that the Magus must stifle.
As they head into Attolia, the band must face not only the dangers of mountain passes to be scaled and raging rivers to be crossed. There is also the danger of being taken prisoner by the Queen of Attolia's forces, who are known for their hostility to foreigners of any kind, to say nothing of Sounis who have come to steal a sacred token of the Attolian people. But Gen has skills and a plan as yet unrevealed that not even the Magus suspects. Will the friction between Gen and the two princelings allow him to live long enough to carry out his plan? That will depend entirely on Gen's cleverness and his ability to keep secret all that he knows about their mission, his plan, and the sacred Gift of Hamiathes.
