Books I've Loved

I have loved the world of books since I was eight years old.  Well that was the first I can remember actually falling in love with reading anyway.  Before that I remember my mom would read me Aesop's Fables before bedtime and my imagination would run wild as I listened to her voice reading about the animals and crazy characters of the world of Aesop.

Then when my parents were going through their separation and divorce when I was eight, I dove headfirst into the world of Beverly Cleary as she wrote about memorable characters like Henry Huggins and his dog Ribsy, Beezus and her sister Ramona and Otis Spofford.  I read Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew.  I read Robert McCloskey's Homer Price and John D. Fitsgerald's Great Brain series.  I was crazy about the Great Brain series.  The descriptions were so vivid to me.  Part of their appeal I'm sure was the excellent cover art.  That seems to be a vital part of the total book experience to this day.  I will be researching sources of amazing cover art in this whole new process of creating a fun, exciting story to tell, you can be sure.

When I was a little older I ventured carefully into the scary worlds of Stephen King.  My very first mega novel was his book, It.  Clowns were never the same to me after that.  It was in that book that I noticed the importance of inner dialogue and how important it is to the reader to be able to relate to the characters.

I enjoyed classic works as well. Of Mice and Men was one I enjoyed.  Moll Flanders, not so much.  Lord of the Flies was awesome--I love a good deserted island story.  I can't wait to write my own soon.

These books got me through childhood and young adulthood.  They are precious to me.  I am so thankful for the impact they had and the escape route they provided so that I could step out from this world for just a few hours and let my mind soar.  I truly pray that I can create books that give readers this same kind of experience.

Suspension of Disbelief...

In some of my very favorite stories, I could just read about daily life in those worlds and still happy.  I hardly even need "conflict" or "catastrophe" or "plot twists" at all.  Now most readers would probably get bored pretty fast without these necessary elements of a good book, and maybe I would too, but it feels like I wouldn't sometimes--if the story is good enough. 

More of my favorite books include stories about the end of the world. I dearly love the concept of the apocalypse.  Some horrible event that ends life on this planet as we know it and a small group of survivors have to pick up the pieces and move on.  The Stand was memorable to me in that genre.  I also enjoy the "survive this game to win your life and probably financial riches too" motif.  Stephen King's The Long Walk spoke to me in that particular tale.

I've read Steinbeck's The Pearl and The Red Pony and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird as well as books from the myriad of works by Dean Koontz and John Grisham and Michael Crichton.

Somewhere along the way I started trying to guess where the story was going.  I wanted to see if I could make up the next part and if it would be as good as the author's version.  I found myself thinking of different ideas for a story as I lived my daily life in school and then in my career and at church and on dates and while playing guitar.

Finally one day I just started writing things down.  I learned quickly to respect the art form.  It's not as easy to write something worth reading as it is to read it.  That is a brilliant insight, I know.  But I found that in many of the books I read, especially during times in my life when I was just trying to escape reality, I enjoyed the world of the book whether or not anything exciting was taking place or not.  I just liked being somewhere else for awhile.  Now I realize that that will not last for very long for the typical reader.  Stuff HAS to happen.  And bad stuff is what makes it all interesting.  So I'm careful to not linger too long in my stories.  I want them to be page turners. I want my readers to lose sleep and risk their jobs and their grades because they cannot put my stories down.  Well, not really...but sort of.  I think you know what I mean.

I am just so thankful for all the writers who entertained and inspired me during tough times in my life that I pray that I can be such an author for others.  I want to help people escape the pain and/or boredom of their lives and if they can possibly even be inspired by something I've written, that would be the highest honor I could imagine.  Sure I want to be a best selling author, but first I want to be an author who speaks to people's hearts.

I could go on but this is already probably way to long for a blog post. If you are still reading this, thank you.  I look forward to keeping you posted about my writing process as it continues. I will post about that soon.  Now go jump into a good book even if just for a little while today!  Go on.... Headfirst like a big boy or girl... 1, 2, 3 Jump!