TOP 5 BOOKS THAT INSPIRED ME TO WRITE
While there are plenty of books I admire, respect and am down right in awe of, here are five that as a youth blew me away and planted in me a desire to become a storyteller.
#5 Jurassic Park
I had bed sheets with dinosaurs on them, birthday cakes with dinosaurs on them, and dinosaur with dinosaurs on them, so of course a book about a dinosaur park that goes awry WAY captured my imagination - along with the entire world. I also count seeing the original JP Steven Spielberg trailer as one of my favorite memories. Full on goosebumps for a week. I saw that movie at least a dozen times in theaters. It's also one of the movies that influenced my filmmaking pursuits. Double whammy!
#4 The Gunslinger
In the early 90's when I started reading The Dark Tower series there were only three books! Talk about a cliff hanger. It was years of waiting between volumes, but The Gunslinger introduced me to Mr. King and at one point I thought there would be nothing cooler than to have my own bird skull necklace, like Rolland's friend Cuthbert Allgood. So with boyish enthusiasm I dug up a recently deceased pet rabbit to make my own skull pendant. What I discovered my prudent mother had thrown away ol' Blacky as his decomposing body was stinking up the back yard, and along with him went my dream of being a gunslinger with a rabbit skull necklace :(
#3 Pillars of the Earth
I always though this book would make a great movie, then they made one and it was terrible. But the book is still amazing. Medieval times, check. Adventures, count me in. Building a cathedral...er, yawn? But man what an epic piece. I think I read this when I was like 12 or 13 and yikes there were some racy scenes. As an adult I've reread this book and I thought, what was I so hot and bothered about as a kid? Guess it was the hormones.
#2 Faerie Tale
Raymond E. Feist was my jam as a tween. His Riftwar anthology made me want to write fantasy. Hands down. I was going to write fantasy. No question. Somewhere in a box of my old stuff, I have fifty pages of an unfinished fantasy trilogy (which was a lot for a ten year old) and a meticulously detailed world map. But it was Faerie Tale, a modern day story with a fantasy backdrop, that introduced me to the notion that I might write something other than fantasy. Which turned out to be the case.
#1 Sole Survivor
If there is an author that inspired me to write it's Mr. Dean Koontz; and if there is a book that most directly inspired me to write my first book, it's Sole Survivor. While a lot of Koontz's early work takes on many points of view, Sole Survivor had one fixed perspective which revealed element after element in a satisfying and suspenseful mystery that captivated me. I loved the big ideas that underlined the plot and the poetic prose. When I was a freshman in college I had the opportunity to be in a chat room (yeah that used to be a thing) with Mr. Koontz while he was promoting his most recent book and I asked him what advice he'd give on becoming a successful author. He laughed and said there was no way he could list everything in that short format and with the time limitations. But he did give a few tips and while I don't think I have the writing prowess of Mr. Koontz, I do think I was able to impart a tiny bit of that advice in my book, Posthuman,
(www.amazon.com/dp/B07WRL35FX) and make it a pretty good read. Cheers!
#5 Jurassic Park
I had bed sheets with dinosaurs on them, birthday cakes with dinosaurs on them, and dinosaur with dinosaurs on them, so of course a book about a dinosaur park that goes awry WAY captured my imagination - along with the entire world. I also count seeing the original JP Steven Spielberg trailer as one of my favorite memories. Full on goosebumps for a week. I saw that movie at least a dozen times in theaters. It's also one of the movies that influenced my filmmaking pursuits. Double whammy!
#4 The Gunslinger
In the early 90's when I started reading The Dark Tower series there were only three books! Talk about a cliff hanger. It was years of waiting between volumes, but The Gunslinger introduced me to Mr. King and at one point I thought there would be nothing cooler than to have my own bird skull necklace, like Rolland's friend Cuthbert Allgood. So with boyish enthusiasm I dug up a recently deceased pet rabbit to make my own skull pendant. What I discovered my prudent mother had thrown away ol' Blacky as his decomposing body was stinking up the back yard, and along with him went my dream of being a gunslinger with a rabbit skull necklace :(
#3 Pillars of the Earth
I always though this book would make a great movie, then they made one and it was terrible. But the book is still amazing. Medieval times, check. Adventures, count me in. Building a cathedral...er, yawn? But man what an epic piece. I think I read this when I was like 12 or 13 and yikes there were some racy scenes. As an adult I've reread this book and I thought, what was I so hot and bothered about as a kid? Guess it was the hormones.
#2 Faerie Tale
Raymond E. Feist was my jam as a tween. His Riftwar anthology made me want to write fantasy. Hands down. I was going to write fantasy. No question. Somewhere in a box of my old stuff, I have fifty pages of an unfinished fantasy trilogy (which was a lot for a ten year old) and a meticulously detailed world map. But it was Faerie Tale, a modern day story with a fantasy backdrop, that introduced me to the notion that I might write something other than fantasy. Which turned out to be the case.
#1 Sole Survivor
If there is an author that inspired me to write it's Mr. Dean Koontz; and if there is a book that most directly inspired me to write my first book, it's Sole Survivor. While a lot of Koontz's early work takes on many points of view, Sole Survivor had one fixed perspective which revealed element after element in a satisfying and suspenseful mystery that captivated me. I loved the big ideas that underlined the plot and the poetic prose. When I was a freshman in college I had the opportunity to be in a chat room (yeah that used to be a thing) with Mr. Koontz while he was promoting his most recent book and I asked him what advice he'd give on becoming a successful author. He laughed and said there was no way he could list everything in that short format and with the time limitations. But he did give a few tips and while I don't think I have the writing prowess of Mr. Koontz, I do think I was able to impart a tiny bit of that advice in my book, Posthuman,
(www.amazon.com/dp/B07WRL35FX) and make it a pretty good read. Cheers!
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