From allanh: When you were 12 years old, what did you want to be when you grew up?

It took me a while to remember, once you asked me: a science fiction writer. It seemed to be assumed all through my childhood that I would be a writer of some sort and by that age I was deep into SF/Fantasy, reading it nonstop. And I wrote a bit too, mostly poems and stories. But at twelve that changed when I read William Burroughs (who at that time was being championed as an SF writer). I wanted to write like that and yet had not the slightest clue as to how to do so. So I tried a couple of things and then quit in frustration and didn’t write again for years.

March, month of questions; ask them here