Hypertext Magazine asked Terry Watkins, author of DARLING GIRL, “Why did it take you so long to write your first book?”
By Terry Watkins
I was always an avid reader, a habit instilled early on by my mother. But even as I read some books and thought that I could have done a better job, I lacked the confidence to write myself. It wasn’t until I was teaching that I started modeling different kinds of writing for my students – pattern poetry, the How-To essay, the personal narrative. When I asked my students to write, I wrote alongside them. Then, using my own writing, I walked them through how to edit, how to polish a piece. I let them pick apart what I wrote the way I picked apart what they wrote. The first chapter of my book was entirely written when I was teaching 8th graders at Mendez Middle School. After that experience, I figured I could face any audience, any critics. After I retired from teaching, I joined a writing group, then entered a contest and pretty soon I had a book. I’m hoping the next book doesn’t take nearly so long.
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A native of nowhere and a traveler everywhere, Terry Watkins has been on the road since the day she was born. She has visited all seven continents, and particularly enjoyed being shipwrecked in Antarctica. The notion of rootlessness permeates her life and writing. Terry came to writing as a teacher of middle-grade students. While demonstrating how to write a personal narrative, she found her own voice on the page. It wasn’t until she joined a writing workshop group that she began to think of herself as a writer. When not writing or traveling, T.C. reads, knits, and putters in the garden. A survivor of a large family, she has a stepson, a daughter-in-law, and two grandsons, all of whom she adores.
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