3.SR: You mentioned in another interview that living in a small town with nothing to do may have been a factor in your love of reading and writing. Were there any adults who inspired this interest?
SHO: Definitely. My biggest influence as a child was my downstairs neighbor. When I was about four, my mother would put me outside "for fresh air" in a fenced-in area with my tricycle, but as soon as she went back into the apartment, I used the tricycle to climb over the fence and go to Kitty's apartment. Kitty was a great reader-and she taught me to read and write and gave me graham crackers and tea. It was a wonderful, wholly supportive experience. So I was already reading and writing by the time I hit kindergarten. To this day, graham crackers and tea are comfort food for me.
4.SR: You have an educational background in writing. Do you believe writers are born, or do you believe they can be made. Please explain.
SHO: Right after college, I went for a master's degree in creative writing, and it definitely helped me better my craft in many ways. But I was already set on being a writer, so I don't think the degree was absolutely necessary, and none of my publications were a direct result of the degree itself or the contacts I made. It did keep me from having to get a real job for another two years, which is always a virtue for a writer!
As to whether writers are born or made, it's impossible to answer. If you start writing as soon as you can hold a pen, as I did, the fact seems to say, writers are born. But I know many writers who started much later-and I myself didn't have success till later-as if we had to wait for life to "make us."
I think at the heart of the question is the nagging doubt that some people have, especially those who might have been terrible in school, that they aren't "born writers" and so can't do it-the nagging doubt that they aren't writers at all, or are not "real" writers, whatever that means. (Fear and doubt are seldom logical.) I say, *$%#@ doubt!"-and on good days, I even believe it. If you're so obsessed that you doubt you're a writer, you probably are a writer. The only qualification for being a writer is that you write.
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