Anne McCaffrey passed away at age 85, and it’s always sad when the world loses a great author. I’d only read one of her books (the first Pern) and liked it well enough, but it was a long time ago and for some reason I responded better to Dune at the time. But I know her work really inspired and affected a lot of readers and future writers, and that’s a powerful thing.
So, it seems a good time to devote some air time to those writers that really affected you, whose work still resonates with you, whose work maybe changed you in some fashion.
I say “one writer,” but that doesn’t really need to be the case. Can be one, can be several.
So: who?
What writers affected you deeply, straight through the heart and clean to the soul?
How? Why? What books? What was the effect of those books?
Honor them here if you are so inclined.
Madeline says:
While this book didn’t totally change my life, Satan Burger by Carlton Mellick did give me a new outlook on writing. It’s one of those “anti-novel” type books of the bizarro genre. This book (along with any of the bizarro genre) would make people ask, “Why?” And it’ll ask back, “Why not?” The book taught me to let loose with my writing and think outside the box. It made me feel comfortable with the idea that anything I want could happen in my fiction. If I wanted the sidewalks to talk, then so be it. They’ll talk. And no one would be able to question otherwise. I never realized how there truly are no rules in fiction until I read that book.
Granted, talking sidewalks and the like really only applies to the bizarro genre but that’s what I write, so it’s no problem, really.
November 23, 2011 — 12:38 AM
Natalie says:
I was in the first year of High School, so 12 or 13, and still getting my books from this award-winning children’s book shop nearby. I don’t think I even realised that there was such a thing as “adult” books (I don’t mean adult adult, get your mind out of the gutter for a second). I remember for my book report in English I talked about “The Borribles” — not a bad book but definitely kids’ stuff. Then another girl talked about “Lord Foul’s Bane”. A fantasy novel by Stephen Donaldson where the hero has leprosy and rapes the first person he meets in the fantasy world because he is stunned by his sudden return to un-impotence. Not just good and evil — but good and evil in one person. Complex characters, adult themes, amazing world-building. Fantasy isn’t all fairies and unicorns. Stephen Donaldson sparked my enduring love for the genre and for books written for readers over 8.
November 23, 2011 — 12:49 AM
Amie aka MammaLoves says:
Ezra Jack Keats The Snowy Day–still one of my favorite children’s books. It was the first book I remember that evoked emotion in me, and taught me that I could expect that from future books.
November 23, 2011 — 2:00 AM
Jo Eberhardt says:
There are so many that influenced me, my beliefs, my reading, and my writing over the years. There was Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker’s Guide, of course. And David Eddings’s Belgariad as an introduction to more epic/classic fantasy. But the one book that stands out as the book that both changed my 13-year-old soul and was just as amazing (or possibly more so) on re-reading is:
Robert McCammon’s Swan Song
That book speaks directly to the heart. There’s polarized good and evil, characters who include a bit of both, soul-rending horror, tear-worthy beauty, and a strong female character that I l respected as a child and came to love as an adult. (I’m talking, of course, about Sister.)
November 23, 2011 — 2:00 AM
Jeff Xilon says:
As an avid reader I have several authors the I consider life altering. My personal Literary Trinity:
Robertson Davies – I’ve read “Fifth Business” countless times. This book made me realize that just because a teacher assigned it didn’t mean it had to suck. This book helped me mature a little and come to understand that sometimes my teachers might actually have something to share with my arrogant adolescent self that was worth paying attention too.
Haruki Murakami – The most recent addition to the Trinity. A master story teller. A Murakami novel is the crack-cocaine of literature to me. You can become lost while reading a Murakami novel. They are sometimes beautiful, sometimes sad, sometimes terrifying, often mind-fucking. I’ve read almost all of them but my favorite is probably South of the Border, West of the Sun; its not his most famous, newest or biggest, but I love it.
Harlan Ellison – I love every word. His introductions and non-fiction essays are often better than his fiction, and his fiction is good. Real good. His stories are often not for the faint of heart, but they are worth it. At the end of the day Ellison stories are about life and real emotion. They are gut punches and left hooks. They are about the things that really matter.
November 23, 2011 — 2:59 AM
Samantha J. Mathis says:
For me it was easily Dick Francis. I devoured his books in my teen years and he left me with a love of the mystery genre, an appreciation for well-placed violence and a definite pickiness about word choice. Not one of his novels ever failed to entertain and pull me in and I’ve always tried to emulate his style in my own writing. Fan for life!
And then, much later, a friend handed me Urban Shaman by C.E. Murphy and after reading just the first page I completely fell in love with her work. I think those two authors are probably by biggest influences.
November 23, 2011 — 3:20 AM
Jim Franklin says:
For me, it’s Piers Anthony. When i first read his ‘Incarnations of Immortality’ series, I was hooked, I put down the joystick (not a euphamism) and read them all back-to-back. I loved the idea of these formally regular people fulfilling jobs such as death, time, nature, good and evil, in a land with both science and magic.
November 23, 2011 — 3:32 AM
Lynne Connolly says:
First was Dickens, which I read as a child, not realising it was supposed to be difficult or classical or anything. I just loved them.
Then Conan Doyle. Sherlock Holmes, to be precise.
Then Georgette Heyer. Don’t scoff. Witty and she taught me that light reading didn’t have to be trashy.
Tolkein. Sorry, but yeah. Then Dorothy Dunnett, who showed me there were many ways of telling a story, and she opened up the possibilities of the historical novel for me.
James Joyce. Again, sorry. But every page of “Ulysses” is bursting with life.
November 23, 2011 — 3:33 AM
Tiger Gray says:
Anne McCaffrey did not grip me with her dragon books. Frankly the sexual politics, refusal to include any kind of faith on such a desolate planet, and her rigid gender roles bothered the hell out of me. But oh, the Ship Who Sang. Oh my god, I remember that book as total genius. In fact I never want to read it again, in case I’m wrong.
Mercedes Lackey’s Magic’s Pawn. It was the first time I read about another queer bullied kid. I don’t know if this counts, but Werewolf: the Apocalypse. A tortured self insert Werewolf fanfic is one of the first novel-length things I ever wrote, at the tender age of thirteen.
Lolita. That book is maybe the most earth shattering thing I’ve ever read. I think it even informed my decision to be a forensic psychologist. I re-read it again recently for class (Erikson’s life stages through the lens of Lolita *shines knuckles on shirt* I’m proud of that one) and it’s even MORE brilliant now that I am older.
November 23, 2011 — 3:38 AM
John Vise says:
How I still miss Robert Lynn Asprin. Not only was he one of the first fantasy writers I read as a kid, up till then I had just read sci-fi (and going from Heinlein to Asprin was quite a jump I can assure you.) Then years later, I find myself heading to a bar and delivering a message to him from a beautiful blonde bouzouki player, and we end up good friends and drinking buddies. (Full story another time.) An inspiration and a friend, cheers you lovely dead wanker!
November 23, 2011 — 3:38 AM
Harry Markov (@HarryMarkov) says:
My choice would be Kaaron Warren. Basically, every tale this woman has written has me hurting deeply [in a good way]. It’s a powerful gift to lure you in and make you become the story.
November 23, 2011 — 3:53 AM
Inkblot says:
Douglas Adams’ H2G2 series. A very twisted and lonely childhood and teenage was much alleviated by his wonderful humour, and I cannot reread these books enough. The radio show, the audiobooks, the game – everything is deeply cherished for having made my developing years so much more easier to bear.
November 23, 2011 — 4:47 AM
Dan Mae says:
I do remember reading William Horwood for the first time. My mother spent the better part of two years trying to convince me that his works would change my life, but I got stuck on his personification of moles, which just seemed absolutely bizarre to me. It was a severe bout of tonsillitis that moved me, out of sheer boredom, to pick up the first book of his incredible series about moles (yes, MOLES). That was 12 years ago. I have collected all of his published works. I have read them all enough to times to write a thesis on the stories, the writing style and the impact. I have read all of the books (and you best believe, the man has BEEN writing for decades) and still can’t get enough. It’s the books I read once a year, for the perspective, for the story and for the sheer joy of immersing yourself in a tale of action, love, betrayal and spirit. A tale that is SO BIG (that’s what she said, also, I am twelve) and so gripping and so enthralling that you develop the whole reading whilst doing everything else because you just can’t put it down.
RIP Anne. You were one of the best and when I was young and dreaming about great things, your writing kept me happy, thriving and inspired. Also, damn I love dragons.
November 23, 2011 — 4:59 AM
Jonathan D. Beer says:
I cannot imagine being the man I am today had I not read Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series; I started reading them in my teens and can say that my formative years were undoubtly influenced by his philosophies and ways of thinking.
As a writer, Bernard Cornwell set me on the path of historical fiction (and history in general – arguably his Sharpe series was the reason I did a War Studies degree at university).
I hadn’t cried at a book until I read Daniel Keyes’s ‘Flowers for Algernon’ short story, and that one will stay with me until the day I die.
November 23, 2011 — 5:43 AM
BJ Kerry says:
When I was younger 10 – 13 I would read all the books by an author. I devoured anything by Dick Francis. I loved all that horsey world much more that the mystery bit. But I digress. Now I find I love individual books. Anita Shreve – Body Surfing brings the coast and tide to life, really don’t like any of her other books. Jodi Picoult – Plain Truth I love again read other books by her and they are good but don’t grab my imagination by the ears and swing it around the room.
November 23, 2011 — 7:11 AM
John Pula says:
He’s still alive, kicking, and fairly new to fantasy, but my pick is Patrick Rothfuss. I actually read through all his blog entries (several years of archives) before ever reading his novels. It sort of brought the writer down from on high for me and humanized the process of writing. He’s the reason I started my first novel a few months back, and am now 70Kish words in (slow, I know). For whatever reason, reading about writers being ordinary folks makes me think “maybe I could do that.” So thanks to you too, Chuck.
November 23, 2011 — 7:40 AM
Todd Moody says:
George Lucas had a huge impact on me. I didn’t really think about science fiction until he came along, but as a writer he is not all that, he has great vision though.
The author that stands out as a resonator with me is CJ Cherryh and her Union/Alliance series of books, Merchanter’s Luck stands out, but that are all fantastic. Cyteen is remarkable. She has an active webpresence and mentioned the passing of Mrs. McCaffrey this morning also. http://www.cherryh.com/WaveWithoutAShore/
Frederik Pohl’s Gateway Saga had a huge impact on me.
I’m also a huge William Gibson fan, he continues to improve with age. Necromancer is a little dated now, but the imagery is still amazing.
November 23, 2011 — 9:11 AM
Steph says:
Ditto Bernard Cornwell! (can’t wait for his next Uhtred release!) I loved Anne McCafferey’s dragon books as a teen. I am sorry to hear she has passed.
November 23, 2011 — 9:12 AM
Laura Lam says:
Anne McCaffrey was one such writer for me. I wrote a little blog post (shamless plug, y’all, click my name) about how grateful I was that she tricked me into reading science fiction, as at the time I flat-out REFUSED to read any.
Alfred Bester’s The Stars my Destination was another. The synaesthesia scene BLEW MY MIND when I was 15, and still does every time I read it. “Indigo oozed with sickening speed like a slithering snake.” Amazing.
November 23, 2011 — 9:16 AM
Maurice "Mo" Fawcett says:
Tolkien, hands down, if I had to pick one! Tolkien’s writing drew me into Middle Earth, and I’ve never been quite able to escape since. No other writer has done so to quite the same extent. Tolkien introduced me to the best that high fantasy has to offer, and got me hooked on the fantasy genre at a young age.
November 23, 2011 — 9:17 AM
Misa says:
Anne McCafferey, along with David Eddings and Douglas Adams. All have sadly passed, and I read Terry Pratchett’s tweets with a certain sadness, knowing that Alzheimer’s is slowly stealing him away.
November 23, 2011 — 9:19 AM
Christopher Gronlund says:
As a kid, my mom couldn’t read “The Dollar Watch and the Five Jack Rabbits” from Carl Sandburg’s Rootabaga Stories to me enough. The end of that story was the first time I remember an ambiguous ending, and I loved it. (http://josephperry.net/rootabaga/05-02dollarwatch.html)
Then came Jack London. Everything he wrote. The year my dad gave me his complete works for Christmas was great.
In junior high school, I read a collection of John Cheever short stories. It was the first contemporary/adult fiction I really read. That led to Stephen King’s Different Seasons. “The Body” made me want to write. Sometime after that, I read John Irving’s The World According to Garp. King and Irving–probably more than any other authors–made me want to write.
November 23, 2011 — 9:20 AM
Joe says:
Stephen Donaldson – I read the Thomas Covenant books over and over again in high school. I got all into capital-L literature in college and only recently (at age 40+) have returned to fantasy and other genre fiction in both my reading and my writing. The sheer scope of the Unbeliever stuff really got me.
November 23, 2011 — 9:22 AM
Marie A Parsons says:
Andre Norton was my first happy read when I was about 7 or 8 (eons ago). Her heroes and heroines, like _Ordeal in Otherwhere_ or the Ross Murdock books, helped me believe that no matter who one was, where one came from, or what one thought were obstacles, one could do anything. Isaac Asimov’s Foundation books and Gordon Dickson’s Dorsai books showed me a future that seemed fantastic and oddly hopeful.
But Anne McCaffrey’s Pern books, which along with all the above, I have read and re-read and re-re-re-re-read over the years, taught me how humans work together, use science *AND* with inner skills and strengths, to become better, go farther, and accomplish far more.
All of them taught me to keep reading and reading and reading.
November 23, 2011 — 9:24 AM
KC says:
Dianna Wynne Jones. Before I read her, most of the fantasy books I read were stereotypical high fantasy fare, very generic and rarely good – but reading her made me love fantasy even more. Her books showed me that you can really do anything you want with fantasy. She had a clever writing style, she came up with the most absurd plots that worked so well, her characters were so out of the ordinary and yet so down to earth… She really inspired my writing. I sat down and cried for several minutes when the news broke that she’d passed away earlier this year because her books were such a huge part of my life.
The other author who’s really inspired me is Diane Duane – I found her books when I was in high school, and they really drove home the point that kids’ books can be just as good or better than YA or adult books. She also blends together magic and sci-fi wonderfully and her books opened my mind to new ways to combine story elements and that you could write passionately about the things you loved.
I think the books these two have written have really influenced my writing style and my ideas – not in the way I write or in having similar subject matter, but in being willing to think outside the box and combine ideas, to try crazy things when I write. And so far, it’s worked out, since my comic scripting professor loved my work at school last quarter.
November 23, 2011 — 9:24 AM
Amber says:
For me, it’s Lillian Jackson Braun – I found her way of writing from a male perspective so believable that I kept forgetting she was a woman. I loved her characters and of course the cats. When I discovered The Cat Who series, I couldn’t stop reading them until I was completely caught up. (Ahh the days before twitter distractions…)
November 23, 2011 — 9:27 AM
Shecky says:
First, Tolkien’s LotR. Such an epic tale of adventure, right vs. wrong, the internal battle and the importance of everyone.
Right next to it, Heinlein’s entire bibliography. Man could spin a yarn like nobody’s business. And like Doc Smith, he valued competence and courage alike.
Separate but on the same level, Tom de Haan’s A Mirror for Princes. Fantasy without any classic fantastic elements (save that it’s obviously a medievalesque world that isn’t ours). Dark, gloomy and brooding without turning me off (so many other works have the first three but end up angstipated). No happy ending whatsoever… and for once, I didn’t mind that. It’s written so well that no matter how much it actually hurts to read, I HAVE to reread it at least once a year.
November 23, 2011 — 9:32 AM
falconesse says:
I have two: Stephen King’s The Stand and Robert R. McCammon’s Boy’s Life. I’ve re-read them so often, my copies are falling apart.
They’re the kind of books whose characters are old friends. (It was a bit disconcerting this year to realize that I am now older than Nick Andros; I was half his age when we first met.) I guess with The Stand, it was the ordinary people surviving in extraordinary circumstances that got me. That and my love for end-of-the-world stories, and big sweeping good-vs-evil stories.
Boy’s Life I suppose goes the other way — it’s life in a small town, though the extraordinary happens there, too. As Cory says, he “was raised in a magic time, in a magic town, among magicians.” (Hope I’m not butchering that. I don’t have access to my copy right now.) I guess I’m a sucker for coming of age stories, too. And even though I’m a girl, I saw a lot of myself in Cory Mackenson. I already knew I wanted to be a writer when I read Boy’s Life for the first time, but I’m pretty sure Cory’s dream encouraged my own.
November 23, 2011 — 9:46 AM
John G. Hartness says:
Mercedes Lackey and Chris Claremont came about at about the same time for me, with about the same results. Lackey’s Magic’s Pawn introduced me to the first gay person I’d ever met, letting me see that people were more than just labels and eventually inspiring my third book, Back in Black. Claremont has a scene where Kitty Pryde is defending Nightcrawler from a mob of angry humans and talked about how she was just as different from Kurt because she was Jewish, and how that led to her grandparents going to concentration camps for something they could no more control than Nightcrawler could control his appearance.
Those two stories really opened my eyes to the world outside of rural SC and got me to thinking, an often painful pasttime. I got the chance to tell Ms. Lackey how much her story meant to me at Dragon Con this year in one of the coolest moments of my career.
November 23, 2011 — 9:47 AM
Karen Schumacher says:
I was seven and my mother had picked up a huge box of books from the local library’s Book Room sale. There were music books and kids books, even a French primer. There was also The Forgotten Door by Alexander Key and a whole slew of other worlds opened for me. Not only was John not from this rural area, he was from another dimension-or another world-or a different time- my mind exploded with new concepts to study and think about. I stuck pretty much with sword-and-sorcery as reading material for the next four years, then a friend introduced me to Harlan Ellison. And then I discovered Heinlein, Stasheff, Bradbury, King, Barker (note: the full list would be ridiculous)- the list is still growing every day. But it all started with The Forgotten Door.
November 23, 2011 — 10:16 AM
Louise Sorensen says:
My life changed forever when I read Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land.
From there I discovered/read Heinlein, Asimov, Andre Norton, Anne McCaffrey, Koontz, Grisham and on and on…
But the people who come to mind first, are Robert Heinlein and Stephen King. Resonating vibes.
Writing is telepathy.~ Stephen King.
You write something down, an idea from your mind, and someone else can pick it up… a minute, a day, a millennia later. Magic.
November 23, 2011 — 10:23 AM
Dave Turner says:
So far…
David Foster Wallace – He is the only author I’ve read that earns the moniker “dazzling”. It’s his non-fiction I admire the most, which displays a level of playfulness and confidence that only comes from supreme mastery of the tools of language and writing. It is simply sublime.
Neal Stephenson – The finest example of a Promethean writer, someone who brings new ideas to his readers in a captivating way. I recognize his faults as a storyteller, but there are few better at the “journey, not the destination” type of writing.
Cormac McCarthy – Almost the anti-Wallace, McCarthy’s writing is almost Buddhist: minimal, stark, and stuffed with literary satori. Again, his writing gleams with confidence and never punishes you for submitting to it.
November 23, 2011 — 10:46 AM
Stacey Riley says:
Mine would be Terry Pratchett and the Discworld novels. They introduced me to the fantasy genre, but they had things in them that I could relate to and a British sense of humour.
The other was Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson where I discovered non-fiction could also be funny.
As you can see I like humour in my reading material.
November 23, 2011 — 10:48 AM
Dan says:
Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy. Specifically, “The Mule” in the second book. The bittersweet ending awakened my adolescent brain to the notion that SF was not all ray guns and space ships.
November 23, 2011 — 11:02 AM
Alexa Muir says:
Anne McCaffrey will be much missed; the Ship who Sang was amazing and I still want little dragons of my own. But it was other writers who have blown my horizons, to show me the beauty beyond.
The first I remember is Tanith Lee with the Birthgrave trilogy. The first book ended in a way that shocked me to the core (I was 13), only for the ending of the trilogy to challenge me with all sorts of uncomfortable questions about love and biology.
I moved onto Sheri Tepper books and was amazed and delighted with how she wove politics, feminism and “big questions” into her stories. I still adore her books, even though I now see how heavy handed she’s been at times with the themes…
Then I read Julian May’s Saga of the Exiles, Intervention and finally the Galactic Milieu trilogy – Oh. My. Gibbons. I think the experience was akin to a religious revelation. The story was so vast, and so clever and yet was made up entirely of genuine people doing what they thought needed to be done. As soon as I finished the last word of the final chapter, I immediately opened the first book of Saga of the Exiles and started all over again. I distinctly recall thinking “I want to do this one day”, and the seed of writing desire was sown.
November 23, 2011 — 11:17 AM
Ron Earl Phillips says:
My wife was an Anne McCaffrey fan, I did try to read the first, but it wasn’t for me. Perhaps because I was older when I tried.
My first influence was L Frank Baum. Funny because at the time, 7, my mother thought I was slow to read, having started at 4 herself. She had the whole series and made me read them. Of course after the first book I was hooked.
Given what I write, it’s odd that I’d read so much fantasy and science fiction. As mentioned above, Piers Anthony’s Xanth series and Incarnations of Immortality were powerful in my development as a reader and a writer.
Then in middle school and high school I step out of those genres for adventure and horror, old school Koontz and Robert McCammon had me thinking for sure I would be a dark fantasy/horror writer.
So many influences, and I hope I never stop collecting them. So many good writers.
November 23, 2011 — 11:29 AM
Josh Loomis says:
There are two passages from Heinlein’s The Cat Who Walks Through Walls that made me want to be a writer, after he introduces & expounds upon his World as Myth theory.
First, this bit about a fictional character being aware of his fate:
And this, towards the end, where Our Hero is cradling a kitten and waiting for rescue:
November 23, 2011 — 11:37 AM
Shullamuth Smith says:
First was the nameless book I received through the Reading is Fundamental program. For me at age 8, a book, brand new, that I could keep, was a wondrous thing.
Frances Hodgson Burnett– The Secret Garden and A Little Princess taught me the value of secret places and consistent defiance.
Stephen King- Pretty much everything, but especially Fire Starter, It, The Stand, and On Writing.
Katherine Neville– The Eight was just so good. I enjoyed her other books as well, but I haven’t reread them a dozen times.
Alice Hoffman– I know her poetic language and nature imagery has influenced my style.
Daniel Woodrell- More poetic language only this time applied to the kind of people I grew up around.
James Joyce- I can’t even begin to explain how his method of storytelling by accretion reshaped my approach to language and my understanding of life. I suspect my preference for mythic themes stems from my Joycean obsession.
Adrian McKinty- Poetic language and visceral violence that led me to both Celtic noir and the vintage american noir of Chandler and Hammett. Also he used to live here in Denver and knows Charlie Brown’s at the Colburn hotel is a wicked cool place.
November 23, 2011 — 12:21 PM
Sean Samonas says:
Neil Gaiman is definitely the most influential author of my adult life. Reading American Gods as an adult definitely started me on the path to thinking, “Hey, people might actually want to pay for my writing if I can get it together.”
As a kid, it was probably Alexandre Dumas. I loved all the romance and swashbuckling adventure in his novels. Count of Monte Cristo was and will always be my favorite book of all time. I can read it over and over and always enjoy it. Three Musketeers is also high up there as well. Also it’s pretty awesome that Dumas kind of lived all the stuff he wrote about too.
November 23, 2011 — 1:32 PM
Jeannie Leighton says:
Lewis Carroll – both the “Alice” books. I re-read them every few years because I love his use of language, of nonsense story with a touch of reality but you have to look closely.
Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden” because it brings peace to my soul.
Ken Kesey’s “Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” because I so wanted to be on that bus. Growing up in New Jersey I was forced to devise other means of escape, which I did so quite well.
November 23, 2011 — 2:05 PM
John Adamus Twitter: awesome_john says:
So many writers have been game-changers, and I don’t know if that’s because I’m either incredibly passionate about writing and being good at it, or if I just grew up easily impressed.
Arthur Conan Doyle taught me about character shaping.
Richard K Morgan made fantasy more adult and gritty and realistic for me.
Peter Brett showed me amazing things with shifts in POV with The Warded Man.
Stephen King made me want actually finish the things I write.
Jim Butcher taught me how to be happy with writing after everyone else discouraged me.
November 23, 2011 — 2:26 PM
Lesann says:
Rudyard Kipling, then Ray Bradbury, and then Brian Lumley – there were many others in between, but those made deep impressions along the way.
November 23, 2011 — 3:54 PM
Anthony Elmore says:
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Self Reliance” taught me to think independently and to shun ‘the hobgoblin of consistency’. Theodore Sturgeon taught me that words are a form a transportation that can travel anywhere in any point of the compass. Kurt Vonnegut taught me to throw the compass in the bin. The Book of Job taught me that God may or may not answer your prayers, but if he really wanted to eff with you, he’d answer all of them.
November 23, 2011 — 4:42 PM
Samuel says:
My first favorite author was Piers Anthony. I devoured his many series and couldn’t get enough. In hindsight, his writing is a little dicey with plenty of darlings, but I just loved his stuff, and his worlds. I want to read them all again, now that I am much older.
Frank Peretti, I really liked, because he keeps the pages turning and keeps the reader guessing, and also does a great job of cutting from one scene to the next, especially as action sequences are unfolding in multiple situations at once. I also like the element of spirituality, and the quieter, more sentimental facets he engages. I simply “get” him, so I’d roll with him through a story anytime.
I have one other person who deserves mention: December Kennedy. This girl does not have any books out or available, but my gosh- her writing leaves me speechless with jaw-dropping power and intensity, even as it is unassuming. This girl changed my life, because I saw the way she evoked raw emotion and left me thinking “holy shit!”
I realized – I want to write like that.
Thus began my writing career.
November 23, 2011 — 5:22 PM
Theodore J. Rice says:
When I was a kid, I had this friend named David. He was what you’d call the typical nerdy book worm type. 2nd grade and he was chewing threw books 7th graders would be having trouble with. 600+ pages of in depth fantasy and the sort. It always impressed me since I could barely get through anything as a kid without losing my attention and jumping back on the Genesis! Man, genesis was awesome.
So to be honest reading really didn’t hit me till a little later. 3rd through 5th grade was all about the Goosebumps books. Talk all the crap you want but they were entertaining and of course horror themed which drew my dark side in. Then there was a few short stories called “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.” The art has haunted me forever and the stories were usually fun, and on occasion scary.
Then I found a 4 book series based loosely on the DOOM video game franchise. Although based on a game, the writing was actually really good, the story fun, lots of action of course, but the interactions between characters is what struck home for me. It got me to look for more in my books than just cheap thrills and laughs.
In my teens I was all about gaming and dived full into DND books and fantasy and along with that came Stephen King. As a child, my mother used to get me and my cousin in a chair and as she read the “Library Policemen” short story she’d re-tell it to us and let me tell you, that story stuck in my mind forever. If you have not read it, do so, its one of the creepier stories I’ve read to date. So since I was a kid I’ve been looking into reading King. I started out with the Dark Tower Series and haven’t looked back since. I’ve been trying to read all the stories that have connections with the Dark Tower Series, and when I’ve finished reading his library of work (considerable reading ahead of me), then I’m going to re-read the Tower series and really dissect all the juicy tid-bits.
King has his faults, is prone to lengthy stretches that can get tiresome, but man he really can bring a story together and the images and concepts in his books are really appealing to a reader like myself. I devoured the extended full version of The Stand and am currently collecting the Comics along with the Dark Tower Comics (BTW, DT comics are REALLY good, so if you’re a fan get them, it gives new content and the art is amazing).
I have to give a shout out to my main man Jim Butcher to whom I’ve fallen in love with his work. Dresden and Codex Alera are such a great read I’d recommend them to any/every one.
November 23, 2011 — 5:26 PM
Theodore J. Rice says:
ADDITIONAL PLUG:
Apparently they are making the Dark Tower series into a Trillogy of movies tied together between movies by a TV series production.
http://www.stephenking.com/promo/dark_tower_film_and_tv/news_tracker/
I heart me some Dark Tower 🙂
November 23, 2011 — 5:34 PM
Susan H. says:
Tom Robbins
He changed the way I read and the way I write. And I love him.
November 23, 2011 — 10:19 PM
KD Sarge says:
I read Danny Dunn along with everything else in my elementary school library, but my love for SFF started with the Andre Norton books that I stumbled on in middle school. The library had maybe seven of them, and I read, reread, and savored each and every one. The ideas in them blew my small-town, I-read-about-horses mind, and I was hooked.
November 23, 2011 — 10:50 PM
oldestgenxer says:
I’m so glad that others besides me named Heinlein.
When I was 11,in the mid-70s, my sister in law had to get rid of her paperbacks. I got them. I still have them. For me, the original ET will always be Lummox, from The Star Beast, which was the first one I read.
In the small school I went to, in 8th grade we had to give our book reports orally, to the principle (who knows why). One that I did was Stranger.
Needless to say, he didn’t get it, and admonished me to read more appropriate material.
Ironically, I’m in the middle of re-reading it right now.
Sure, the dialogue is occasionally clunky. Certainly, early on his villains were contrived. But the ideas put forth were amazing. As evidence, I present “All You Zombies–“, “If This Goes On–“, “Methusalah’s Children,” “The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag.”
You want controversial? Try on some “Farnham’s Freehold.”
I love “Glory Road” and TMIHM. With “Time Enough for Love” I really felt the evolution of a character, and a story, and a storyteller.
Atheist love to use Job: A Comedy of Justice as their thesis, their scripture. I tell you as a believer in God and Christian, I do as well.
And I swear to God, the movies that have been made completely ruined the books. Imagine Starship Troopers done more like the reinvention of Battlestar Galactica. That’s how it plays in my head. I just shake my head at The Puppet Masters–that’s all I got for that.
When I hear the occasional rumble about making Stranger a movie, I just cringe. Whoever does it will fuck it up.
But even so–you know what would make an awesome, mind-bending movie, if they do it right?
Orphans of the Sky.
To keep all the voices in my head quiet, one of them is usually reading Heinlein aloud to the others.
November 23, 2011 — 11:08 PM
Ren Warom says:
Anne McCaffrey. Hades how I love her books. The ‘Crystal Singer’ trilogy, ‘The White Dragon’, ‘Restoree’ and the unbelievably beautiful ‘The Coelura’ are my favourites. Wonderful woman, wonderful mind.
As for the writers not related to her that changed me. First Samuel Delany then, in no particular order, Frank Herbert, WSB, Ken Kesey, Gibson, Peake, Tom Robbins, Richard Adams, Moorcock, Bataille, Leonora Carrington, Bradbury, Bear… wow I could actually go on and on. At every point in my life I’ve read authors that inspired me, haunted me, spurred me on to keep writing, reaffirmed by love of words and what they can do. I’m a book whore, unashamedly so.
November 24, 2011 — 3:08 PM