Charlie Holmberg: Creating History & Fatasy So Imaginative, It Can't Help But Be Addictve!

Have you ever noticed that some of the most creative people in the world are also the most interesting? They look at life and the world around them in a unique way and that, in turn, opens our eyes to all the possibilities we never thought of before! Charlie Holmberg is definitely one of those people. With a sunny smile and friendly personality, Charlie embraces the fact that she is different than the run-of-the-mill person. But it is in such a fun and optimistic way that one can’t help but be inspired and enthused to embrace all the innovation and ideas right along with this incredibly talented and enjoyable woman! Read along see just what we mean!

InD: Where were you born and raised?
CH: I was born and raised in Midvale, Utah.
InD: So how was your childhood?
CH: Well, my street was just past a strip club and my next-door neighbor was a pedophile, although I did not know what a strip club was until I got older. So when we would tell people how to get to our house, we would say, “Go past the strip club before the Hooters then take a right turn”.  I also didn’t know until I was much older that my backyard neighbor was a pedophile, but then I understood why my mom did not want me to talk to him.
InD: Did you grow up in a bad neighborhood?
CH: In my experience it was a good neighborhood, but there was a drug bust down the road once and they put speed bumps on the road because people kept drag racing on it. But I was blissfully unaware because there was also a lot of a really good people around.
InD: What were you like as a child?
CH: You know what’s funny? My mom assigned all of us Sesame Street names and she said that I was Ernie because I was fun-loving and did not realize that my actions affected other people. So I was apparently like that. I have always been extroverted and loud and tactless. I have been working a little bit on that last one in my aging years. I was always quite unique as a child. Like, I did not care about what I wore. I used to take my dad's knee high socks, and roll them down around my ankles and go to school like that.
InD: Just because you thought it was fun?
CH: Because I thought it was comfortable. I thought his socks were nicer than my socks so I would always steal them. Up until the fourth grade, I went to a private school where we all wore uniforms. That was fine and normal but in the fifth and sixth grade in public school, I was known as the teacher's pet because I was slightly more advanced because I came from a private school. Then, in junior high, I wasn't anymore and my grades changed. I was just this weird kid. I met my husband in high school and he said he always thought I was weird. He says I still am, but he likes it now.
InD: You are weird because you were rolling your socks down to your ankles?
CH: Things like that and I was a huge anime junkie. I was one of “those” kids. I taught myself Japanese and watched anime all of the time. I found out what anime was when I was 13, and that was what actually made me want to write because I watched "The Vision of Escaflowne”. I loved the story and decided I wanted to be a storyteller. Originally, I figured I could either draw comics or I could write books. I could tell that I was a bad artist but I couldn’t tell if I was a bad writer or not, so I just wrote. I also loved fantasy and all of that stuff, reading it, writing it, and watching it.
InD: Do you have any brothers and sisters?
CH: I have one older sister had two younger sisters.
InD: So there are four girls in the family. How was that growing up?
CH: Pretty good. My older sister and I were pretty close. My younger sister had some undiagnosed anxiety stuff so we fought a lot, but overall I liked it.
InD: Did you like to read when you were young?
CH: Yes. I was never a huge bookworm, but I liked books. I read all of the American Girl Doll Books, even though I never had an American Girl Doll. I was also really into the Clue books. I have read a few Animorph books too, and I got more into it as I got older. It wasn’t until I moved away to college that I got into epic fantasy.
InD: So when exactly did you start writing?
CH: I started when I was 13, in junior high school.
InD: And that was because you loved the anime series?
CH: Yes, and I wrote fan-fiction during my teenage years, as well. I would start original stuff but I would never finish it. There is actually a 420,000 word story on there that I wrote. It was totally “Mary Sue” and will never go anywhere!
InD: What was the response you received on your fanfiction from people?
CH: I actually received some pretty good responses from people, so that was kind of nice.
InD: So did you put up the 420,000 words at one time?
CH: No, I put it up one chapter at a time as I finished it.
InD: Did it ever turn into anything else?
CH: No. I should go check to see if there's any star reviews done on it, but it has been a long time!
InD: Why did you not try to do something with it?
CH: It was just for me. I was inserting myself into this other world and making it continue from where the original series ended - something like people did with “Twilight” and other books like that.
InD: And you started doing this in junior high?
CH: Yes.
InD: Wow! That’s impressive that you started writing fanfiction at that young of an age. I also read that you were a band geek.
CH: Yes. I really enjoyed being in band, but I never did anything with it. I did meet my husband in band actually, and he dated all of my friends. I was a pianist in a jazz band and I played the French horn in a concert band. Actually, I started on flute but then switched to French horn and then I played this thing called an Elkhorn for a pep band. It’s like if a French horn and a trumpet had a baby. It’s like a trumpet with a big old bell.

Read the entire, in-depth interview in the November 2022 issue of InD'Tale magazine.

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