Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson here, today taking a long leap back into my past. Some of my bios have included the information that my earliest writing was in the form of a newspaper, The Dolland Times. Yes, I wrote it for the many dolls I owned as a result of being a spoiled only child and only/youngest grandchild. But to be honest, I was creating fictional stories in my head long before I ever set words down on paper.
I don’t know exactly how old I was when I started the long-running saga I’m about to share, but well before I passed my eleventh birthday, I had developed the habit of continuing the story every night after I was tucked into bed. At that point, I did write some of it down, and being something of a hoarder, I still have those few pages.
I’m putting up the scans of the first few. If you’re my age, some of the names will sound vaguely familiar. That’s because I modeled most of my characters on those in TV shows I watched with my parents in the 1950s. Rocky and Vena come from Rocky Jones, Space Ranger, Penny and Clipper from Sky King, Perry and Della from Perry Mason, and so on. And, believe it or not, “King Mel” was based on Mel Tormé, who hosted a variety show back then. Kay, possibly Kay Ballard, Tony (no idea who she might have been), and her three brothers (ditto) were based on real people who appeared on his show. I was an equal opportunity borrower. Can you identify the origins of some of the other characters I borrowed? If so, feel free to share in the comments. I remember most of them, but the identities of other inspirations have vanished into the mists of time.
The two characters named Kathy, obviously, were based on myself. Since eleven-year-olds have no modesty, I described the adult version, Queen Kathy, this way: “Queen Kathy was kind and generous, but most certainly, she was also the most beautiful damsel that ever lived. She had brown hair, blue eyes, light skin and ruby lips. She was always dressed in beautiful clothes and always wore her hair in a neat bun.”
The primary settings, castles, towers, and magic aside, were the homes of my two sets of grandparents. Funny thing about that. I’ve used both places, more than once, in my novels. And I still have the ceramic “skull” that featured in a number of the nightly adventures.
New episodes of The Secret Dream continued for some years after I wrote those few pages in 1958. I’m not sure when it came to an end, although I suspect my dreams switched to a different genre around about the time I hit puberty, but I’ve never stopped spinning stories, and my dreams still tend to be of the vivid (and convoluted) variety. What can I say? A writer takes inspiration anywhere she can find it.
Next month, in Part Two, I’ll tell you about my earliest attempt at writing biography. Meanwhile, I’d love it if readers would share stories of their early writing efforts in the comments section.
Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett has had sixty-four books traditionally published and has self published others. She won the Agatha Award and was an Anthony and Macavity finalist for best mystery nonfiction of 2008 for How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries and was an Agatha Award finalist in 2015 in the best mystery short story category. In 2023 she won the Lea Wait Award for “excellence and achievement” from the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. She was the Malice Domestic Guest of Honor in 2014. She is currently working on creating new editions of her backlist titles. Her website is www.KathyLynnEmerson.com.
Kathy, this is amazing to read today because this week I wrote a blog post for another site about how writing a story about my Barbie dolls started my writing journey. (It should come out tomorrow at https://www.doniscasey.com) Unlike you, I can’t find that first story, but I do have another one I wrote either later that year or the next. So fun to read your handwritten publication. Thanks for sharing this with us!
Serendipity at work! It used to embarrass me to look back on early writing, but now I wish I’d saved more of it.
Amazing stuff! As a survivor of several Toni home permanents, the paper doll that came with it was called Tonette. Inspiration?
That could be it. My mom was a professional beautician but I’d have heard the name. And survivor is the right word for perms. I have a sneaking suspicion my mother practiced new hairdos on me.
Such amazing handwriting, Kathy. Mine was always awful, a huge embarrassment since my parents both had wonderful writing. I also spun stories as I fell asleep but never wrote them down. Now I spin our chapters for the WIP.
Kate
Chuckling over your opinion of my handwriting. If you look at the upper case Ts and Fs, there’s a larger than usual space between the bottom and top parts. That tendency got worse as I got older, so those letters were barely recognizable. Finally I switched to writing my Fs so they look more like a British pound sign.
As a life-long teacher of all ages, I am so very impressed with both your print and cursive writing. (Glad to see that cursive is being taught again in some Maine schools). Like Maggie I was the “Victim” of Toni permanent waves. I actually still have the Toni doll that I earned for myself. Your dream story is at a level beyond your age at the time. I am also still writing poems and stories.
Thanks. I credit any advanced skill at writing (and vocabulary) to being read to and starting to read at an early age. You will notice, though, that my spelling was . . . creative.
Yes, I did notice but hey! you were a child.
I LOVE this, and that you still have it! I want to know more about Kay the flying cook. She’s my kind of character.
I can’t actually remember the flying part or where it came from, but I probably based Kay on the grandmother who lived on a farm (NOT in Texas–I don’t know where that came from either!) and was a great cook. I used to have flying dreams, separate from the secret dream saga, in which I always flew upright, rather than Superman-style (and without the winged horse).
Neato, for sure!
Thanks, John.
This is wonderful and sweet. Amazing talent displayed at a young age.
I also imagined myself to sleep, but never wrote the stories down. The first writing that I recall was in the second grade. We were assigned to write a story poem. Mine began Pop! Pop! Pop! Here come the cops. What can I say.
Obviously you were destined to write mysteries . . . or commit crimes! Good to know I’m not the only one who told myself stories to get to sleep. I don’t think I ever told anyone about my dream saga back then, not even my parents, and the next time I tried writing fictional fantasies down on paper (once again stealing from TV shows) I was a teenager with a major crush on Michael Landon.
Kait, I am so glad I dropped back a few days to re-read this post. I just loved the Secret Dream and in something quite strange, your girlhood writing looks almost like my girlhood writing on the page. I unearthed a file of my early stories just yesterday and then went back to your post. I will remember “on the subject of danger”…great hook. Thanks!
Sandy