I have been reading since a very young age. I can still remember the first book I ever read: Patrick the Pup. I think that, along the way, I have learned a little bit from every book I have read (even Patrick), and have applied it to my writing. I have one problem with this. Ever since I was young enough to start playing make-believe, I have become obsessed with one author or one movie and all my play and stories were direct reflections of it. As I got older, I thought that immaturity would stop and I could enjoy and learn from books without becoming obsessed and using the same motifs over and over. I was very, very wrong. […]
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Guest Post – Books that Inspired – Finding Worth in Fiction – by Timothy C. Ward
It’s amazing to think of my journey from first reading books to writing my own. Before I worked on editing my novel’s chapter six of draft four, I finished reading, Wool, by Hugh Howey, the best Sci-Fi since, Ender’s Game, the Sci-Fi that showed I could enjoy a young adult hero, and which shocked me to find that it was over. Somehow I was so enthralled with Ender’s story that I didn’t realize I was on the last pages until that last page appeared. That was my first Sci-Fi, and from there I consumed the nine Dune Prequels. As a slow reader, looking at those books on my friend’s shelf, I thought I’d never read them all. The love for […]
Read moreGuest Post – Books that Inspired – Immortality through Writing – by Valerie Griswold-Ford
There were always books in my house. My parents are both voracious readers, and they imparted that love of words and stories on to their children. I can remember, when I was still very young, listening to my mother read us The Jungle Book and Bambi (the original novels, not the Disney versions), as well as Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, among others. The idea of being able to write and influence the world, even after death, was an amazing idea to me. The fact that I could tell a story and, hundreds of years in the future, someone else could read that same story was, to me, the true proof of immortality. The books that truly fired my urge to write, though, was the Dragonriders […]
Read moreGuest Post – Books that Inspired – Finding New Horizons – by Christopher Walker
I was a fairly dense kid while growing up. I wasn’t stupid. I easily managed A’s and B’s throughout school. I just wasn’t very aware of anything outside of my own immediate interests. I wasn’t aspiring to anything. I just ducked my head, hoping I’d make it to the next day, and missed out on lots of pop culture as a result. When my brother got me my first adult novel for Christmas when I was fourteen, I didn’t even notice that it was the last book in a series. “Star Wars: X-wing: The Bacta War” ignited my love for space opera and fantasy. I felt like I could have been Corran Horn in another life. I loved the starfighter […]
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