Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Mike Farris:
John, on our last program, we talked about what makes a good story. Today, we want to talk about what makes a good storyteller. Would you tell our listeners where you got your best instruction on writing?

John Erickson:
You know, I was in college for six years at the University of Texas and Harvard Divinity School, and I took several courses in writing, but I think that my best instruction came from a woman who never went to college and had never written anything longer than a letter in her life, and that was my mother.

When I was five years old, I stayed home from kindergarten and I just hung out with my mother for a year. And she was a storyteller. She had a sweet, earthy sense of humor, and she also read Bible stories to me. And my mother told me, she said, “John, God has given you a talent, too, and you should always guard it and use it wisely.”

And when I-35 years later—when I was getting rejection slips from New York publishers, that’s what kept me going. It was nothing I heard in a college classroom. My mother was the best teacher I ever had. She’s the one who gave me a sense of vocation.

Mike:
John, that is great encouragement for parents who are listening, who are willing to invest that kind of time with their own children, and to tell them their own stories. Thanks for telling us about your mom. I’m Mike Farris.