WHY DO I WRITE?

Several of my fellow writers have their own blogs.
Amongst them, Sean Taylor holds round table discussions on various topics.
The most recent was: "What's My Motivation?", asking his fellow wordsmiths Erwin K. Roberts, H. David Blalock, Ralph Angelo, Bobby Nash, John Morgan Neal, John R. White, Bill Craig, Ashton Adams, and myself why we do what we do.

While you can read the entire article here, I have taken the liberty of reposting the questions and my original responses below, before expanding upon my answers in italics.

01. Why did you start writing?

I was a reader long before I figured out what a writer/author was. But by the time I read my first all prose (no illustrations) book in 5th grade: Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars; I could not picture myself doing anything else in life.

I have been, and always will be a bookworm. My parents read to me when I was a young child, and to this day I can still recite complete passages of Doctor Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham.
Granted, I discovered comic books before regular books, but once a reader...
It will be a very cold day in Hades before I ever give up reading!

02. Do you write because you enjoy the act of writing, or do you write to 'have written'? Why?
The act of writing is my passion. I take great pride in my creations, to the point of thinking of them as my surrogate children, so to speak.

Anyone who has met me in person knows that I am a much better writer than I am a public speaker, and that I have a great voice for silent movies.

Writing gives me the time and chance to think before I "speak", choosing my words carefully, which is why I have always stressed quality over quantity.
I'd rather take the time to turn in the best work I humanly am capable of instead of rushing through a project.

03. What do you hope to accomplish in your body of written work?
I hope to entertain, and maybe even enlighten the reader whenever possible. While I certainly am not getting rich writing, I love what I'm doing and doing what I love and who knows? Maybe some day I'll be somebody's favorite author who inspires them to be creative.

My library, if it was ever organized

I enjoy a multitude of authors in quite a few genre, and look forward to not
only reading the latest release from one of my favorites, but discovering new authors too. But as I said in my original reply to Question 1, reading all the great words of other authors inspired me to write too.
So if I can return the favor...