Did you always want to be a writer? (And this question’s close cousin: What inspired you to be a writer?)

I don’t have a story about meeting a wise old sage who advised me,  or seeing a family of helpless manatees rescued by the power of literature. I simply do not remember a time when I did not want to be a writer. I would say that was inspired me to be a writer was reading. I was a passionate reader from the time that I was very young, from a family of passionate readers who respected the power of stories and the hard work it takes to write them. Getting lost in fictional worlds, realizing the power of narrative, made me want to create fictional worlds of my own.