[ OT ] SatChat : What inspired you to start writing more seriously ?

I'm not sure if I've ever been a'serious' writer. I've written, on and off, since I was eight years old, the same year that I dug out an old but functional Kensington typewriter from a dumpster. That's when I set off on my life long journey as a wannabe writer, I suppose. It was certainly a positive outlet for an otherwise rough childhood; living in squalor with an alcoholic father, a deadbeat mother who was gone before my sixth birthday, and the bad men who took advantage of that fact. Maybe my need to escape it, and my desire to find a voice, was part of my inspiration to write. 
 
 I enjoy writing things that are mostly centered in reality. Writing people. Small towns. Characters that are far from being perfect or special. Storytelling typically focuses on heroic or villainous deeds and characters, but I'm often more interested in those that do n't have to make that journey, at least not in the more epic scope. 
 
 At the moment, I'm working on a novel. Ever so slowly though, and not terribly good, but the way I see it, the world needs bad writers too. It's how we make the shinier ones look good.
