The Shattered Sylph by L.J. McDonald

That changed when I picked up a book titled Moongazer by Marianne Mancusi. I just never considered the idea that anyone other than my husband would want to read any of it. It's true that for writers, it's a compulsion. To me, not submitting was easier than dealing with rejection slips, so I stopped trying. I did make some attempts to get published over the years, and almost made it at one point, but other things were on my mind. Even now I remember it as being quite clichéd, though my husband likes it.

Those two credits resulted in the creation of the novel Cure for the Phoenix, which I haven't read in over twenty years and which will likely not see the light of day. My parents weren't quite so thrilled that I was doing something that took my away from my schoolwork, so I arranged to write a novel for two school credits, thereby turning writing into homework. I was so floored at the concept that I started writing short stories. I first started writing in 1986, when my grade ten English teacher read some of my poetry and said that I had talent.