Probably the first author I ever read where I couldn’t wait for the next book was Anne McCaffery. The first book of hers that I consumed was Dragonsong and I felt an immediate connection with Menolly, the title character. The writing was relatively simple and eloquent and still managed to paint a rich story. The characters were real people to me even though the world they lived on was totally alien. Even today, decades later, Dragonsong is one of my favorite books. The other thing that I really loved about her writing is how she continually built on the world/universe the stories were taking place in. She would mention other places in passing and eventually visit them, tying everything in […]
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Get Published Episode 93 – Putting Experiences into Your Writing
I’ve been thinking a lot lately, about how my own experiences have affected my writing. I have looked at several of my better stories and I have been able to pick out things I’ve learned, people I have known and even different events in my life. That is not to say I’ve recorded those things in the stories, but used the experiences to provide flavour to the writing. Definitely not word for word, but more in how they would cause my characters to act and the story to develop. So, I decided it would be fun to have a few people join me to discuss this. As often happens, I was only able to line up the schedule with a […]
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 moreFarewell to Anne McCaffrey
I haven’t had a lot of time for Twitter the past while, but last night I flipped over to see what everyone was talking about. To say I was stunned by the conversation would be a major understatement. Anne McCaffrey had passed away at the age of 85 on November 21, 2011. I was never fortunate enough to meet Anne in person but she still had a major impact on my life. I was a big reader when I was young. I still am, to be honest, but hers was some of the first writing I can truly say I fell in love with. Those formative, lonely years of junior high school were made brighter by her DragonRider and Crystal […]
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