eSpecs Books Focus #3: Christopher J. Burke

What happened in your life that prompted you to become a writer?

Ever since I learned to talk (or so I’ve been told), I’ve been telling stories. My mother may have doubted the veracity of some of them but she acknowledged their creativity. This gift of gab likely came from my father, who could spin a tall tale or two himself. Warning: take his history lessons with many grains of salt. Also, no small part of the credit should be reserved for my brother Stephen, who is 13 years my senior. While he was away at college, I may have gone through some of his stuff at home including a number of notebooks filled with his musings. I started putting my words on paper to be like him.

I started writing enough that when I was ten, Santa brought me a toy typewriter. It was plastic and only typed capital letters, but it was mine and it got a workout with any kind of paper I could scrounge up. Oddly, my friends would rather run around outside or play board games than sit and write stories. Weird.

What inspires you to write?

Many things inspire me. Things I’ve heard or misheard. Plays on words. What if and why not? Sometimes, it’s just two ideas that could fit together, which was how the first story I ever sold started. Someone might ask, “Did you ever wonder …?” Maybe not, but I’m wondering now.

One of the first stories I remember putting down on paper as a young boy chronicled a dream that I’d had the night before because I didn’t want to forget. Dreams still speak to me, and sometimes I listen to them.

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