“For
me, being a writer was never a choice. I
was born one. All through my childhood I
wrote short stories and stuffed them in drawers. I wrote on everything. I didn’t do my homework so I could write.”
– Laura Hillenbrand
Hillenbrand – born in Fairfax, VA,
on this date in 1967 – became the writer she felt destined to be, telling
stories about two amazing sports figures from the 1930s; one the great horse
Seabiscuit, the other the great 1930s Olympian Louis Zamperini.
The first story became the bestselling
book and award-winning movie Seabiscuit. The second, one of the most gripping reads of
the past decade and also a popular movie was Unbroken. These two books dominated bestseller lists
in both hardback and paperback with combined sales (to date) of more than 13 million. 
Hillenbrand, as she says above, was
born to be a writer, and that meant writing through some of the most
debilitating pain and isolation a person might ever experience. Confined to her home for 20 years because of
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, she still pressed on to create these two remarkable
works. She says being confined
while writing helped her live her stories more completely in her mind, and (she
believes) made them more interesting and exciting.
“While it's really hard to do, at
the same time, I'm escaping my body, which I really want to do,” she said of
her writing style. “I'm living someone
else's life. I get very intensely into the story, into the interviews and the
research. I'm experiencing things along with my subjects. I have a freedom I
don't have in my physical life.”
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