I'm guest blogging today over at  Holley's site.  Stop by and check it out -

http://holleytrent.com/blog/2012/03/friendly-friday-with-donna-steele/

Thank you, Holley for hosting me today and thank all of you who stopped by – one friend said reading it was just like listening to me talk (hope that was a compliment)!  It’s been a wild day and I so appreciate all of you being a part of it.

Thanks again!!
D

Why Sci Fi?

Well, that goes back a long way in my case. I’ve been reading as long as I can remember and thrilled to be doing it. Unfortunately the reading material when I went to school tended toward “Dick, Jane, and Sally”. I know, I’m showing my age, but gag me they were boring.

I had to find something else, something better, to read. Enter DC Comics and Superman. They only cost 12₵ and were interesting! Then, in the third grade we were told that we could bring a book to school to read in our spare time, if we finished our work, as a quiet activity.

The gold mine in the basement – Daddy’s pulp fiction! I found Slan by A.E. Van Vogt, about a young boy who also happened to be an alien on earth, in hiding. Perfect, so I carried it in and started reading. Then Momma found it in my bag and removed it. I was told in no uncertain terms that “girls did not read science fiction”, and I was not to take that book in anymore.

To be honest, that sealed my fate.  If Momma said no, and girls weren’t supposed to – it was perfect for me. I’ve read them all, classics like Foundation Trilogy, 1984, Brave New World – devoured them. I’ll read anything that has Larry Niven’s name on it. His essay on Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex is an absolute must read. Then I found out WOMEN wrote them too. I know I’ve read every book that Sheri Tepper has written as well as Anne McCaffrey, C.J. Cherryh, and Ursula K. LeGuin.

To actually sell one that I wrote is a dream come true. Creating my own world and inhabiting it could easily become habit forming. In fact, I hope it is.