Getting The Writing Bug

It’s interesting how four siblings in the same household, raised by the same parents, can be so alike and yet so different at the same time. Growing up, I had two older brothers and a younger sister, each of us about three and a half years apart.

When I was ten years old, I had an identity crisis. It was hard for me to figure out where I fit in. My brother Danny got good grades, was polite, and as far as I can recall, never got in any trouble. Never! He was the smart one. (He still is!). Johnny, next in line, was the athlete. He was strong and fast. He played every sport, was good at all of them, and was very popular at school. My younger sister, Gina, was the girl, so being a girl with three brothers, she didn’t have to do much to stand out. She got a lot of attention. My grades were average; I was scrawny, and I didn’t seem to have any unique capabilities. I didn’t feel like I fit in anywhere.

The summer I was ten, we drove from Tampa to Key West for vacation. My parents had a station wagon and for much of the trip, I sat in the way, way back staring out the window. On the ten-hour ride back, I found a spiral notebook and a pencil and started writing about our trip. When I was done writing, my vacation recap was about ten pages long and it all rhymed.
My mother asked what I was doing, and I told her I was writing about our trip. To my surprise, everyone wanted me to read what I had written, so I did. They were laughing so hard, they missed most of it, which was the best adoration I could ever receive. The rhymes were meant to be funny. When I finished reading it, my mom asked me to read it again. I’d found my niche.

About the Author

Tampa, Florida native, Joseph Allen Costa received his MFA in creative writing from the University of Tampa and his BA from the University of South Florida. His novels include: The Good, The Bad and The Goalie, Discovering Dynamite, and Eye of the Storm. His award-winning, Ybor City-based, linked collection of short fiction, Comets, released in July 2020 by Unsolicited Press, was inspired by the family cabinet business his father owned for more than 60 years. His short stories have appeared in BULL men’s fiction, Rabble Lit, the HCE Review, and in December Magazine as a finalist for the Curt Johnson Prose Awards.