This is Planet Money from NPR.

Kathy, Georgia, knew she wanted to be an author at an early age.

When did you start writing?

Oh, Lordy.

I started writing basically as soon as I could.

I used to copy the pictures out of my picture books and then rewrite the books the way I

felt they should be written.

Kathy would change the plot points, come up with new dialogue, make the kids stories she

was reading a little more intense.

There was a book called Flip Runs Away Again and it was about a cult, a little horse,

and I changed it into a murder mystery.

So who murdered who in the little cult?

The cult actually was the murderer.

Oh, wow.

He murdered a very nasty cow that was in the field.

Did the cow have it coming?

Is that what we're saying?

The cow had it coming for sure.

Kathy's murderous cult story goes unpublished, but she writes other things.

She first publishes something, a serialized short story when she's just 15 years old.

Now Kathy is what you might call a working author.

Her books are not on the bestseller list.

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