Elizabeth K. Burton
I think I've always loved to read, from the time I
memorized my Little Golden Books so I could "read" them for
myself. When a bout with polio in 1954 put a crimp in my
physical activity, I suppose it was inevitable that I would
fall back on reading. A tutor who moved me from Dick and
Jane to Black Beauty in the second grade gave me the
stimulus that eventually led me to want to put words on
paper myself. After a long hiatus during which the only
real writing I did was in my journal, I had to find a job
to support myself and my children. Journalism seemed the
logical choice, given my physical limitations, so I spent
the next nine years working for several newspapers. That's
when I discovered I couldn't write for a living and write
for myself at the same time. I moved to working an
information hotline for a small agency where I did most of
the desktop publishing. In my spare time, I started working
on my fiction again. After another six years had passed, I
remarried and moved to Austin, Texas, where I decided it
was time to quit fooling around and write. Influences? I
think I've learned something from every author I've ever
read, even if it was only how not to do something. The
first "grown-up" book I ever owned was an old, sentimental
dog story called Beautiful Joe. In time, I graduated to
science fiction, then horror and from that point on genre
became irrelevant. What mattered was the story and the way
it was told. That's still the criterion apply.
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