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 […]