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 – 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 […]
Read moreGuest Post – Books that Inspired – A Classic and a Fairy Tale by Starla Huchton
I read a lot growing up. As I was “the weird, poor kid”, it often felt like my only reprieve from the constant assault of my peers was the escape I found in stories. But they weren’t just hiding places for me, they were where I could make discoveries about myself, form opinions about the broader world around me, and get the one thing I was lacking more often than not: hope. It’s probably not surprising then that I love Alexandre Dumas’ THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO. It’s one of the few books I’ve read more than once. I discovered it in high school, maybe my sophomore year. There’s so much to love about that book; it wasn’t simply about […]
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