Hello, I’m so pleased that you found my blog. My name is Susan Culver. I’m new to blogging but I’ve been writing for a long time. Writing stemmed from my first love of reading. As a very young girl, I was quiet and shy. And reading became an outlet for me to widen my horizons and feed my imagination. Books became my friends and companions.

I grew up in a small town called Maple Shade in Southern New Jersey in the early 1950’s. I attended Catholic School for twelve years. Catholic School in those years was highly regimented. For the simple reason that the Catholic Schools were overpopulated with the baby boomers. The classrooms sometimes had sixty students packed into their classrooms. For the first couple of years in elementary school, I didn’t even have my own desk. I sat on a windowsill. I often had to share my school texts with another student. The Sisters of St. Josephs did not play around. They ran a tight ship. If you spoke out of turn or misbehaved you would get a quick smack with the metal edge of a wood ruler. If you were particularly cantankerous you would be put in the corner with a dunce hat. Yes, they really did do that. They didn’t have time for child psychology. They did not have time or energy for creativity. But they did teach me to read and to write. And they taught me self-discipline. And I thank them for that.

And then I found the two-room library. It was love at first sight. One room was devoted to children’s books and the second back room for adults. There were rows and rows of books. I was in paradise. One of my favorite books, when I was very young, was the Nancy Drew Series written by Carolyn Keene (a pseudonym). These books told the adventures of a clever young girl who solved all the mysteries. Girls in the 1950’s were not often given the opportunity or examples of young girls being heroes. Most often they had taken a back seat to boys. And my other favorite was the Black Beauty Series by Anna Sewell, which encouraged my love of animals.

By the time I entered high school I had read all the books in the whole library. And that is when I started making up stories. My father insisted that I must have kissed the Blarney Stone because of the stories I would regale them with at dinnertime. My siblings would roll their eyes. Sometimes I would illustrate my stories this added another level of creativity, drawing, and painting.

And so that is the beginning of my life as a writer and artist. Perhaps that is the beginning for many writers. And here you are as a fellow traveler. I am so glad that you have come along for the adventure. Please come again and again. I welcome the company.