Elements of these genres or topics inform my writing
My love for writing began when I was in middle school. It was fueled, however, by my love of reading. I thought I’d take a personal walk down memory lane and share with you genres and specific books that I’ve enjoyed over the years. I believe there are elements of these genres and topics in my own book, The Foolish and the Weak, and the Age of Restoration series going forward.
CURRENT EVENTS
This first one is not a book, but I mention it, because it does have some bearing on my style and what I do today. I’m told, since I don’t remember, that I was taught to read by my parents at home, before I even went to kindergarten. The medium? The daily newspaper. Perhaps subconsciously, that’s where I developed a curiosity about current events and the world around me. Maybe it steered me toward a career in journalism. I don’t know. For the last 12 years, I have owned and published at least two weekly newspapers. I do know my fiction writing has been significantly influenced by article and editorial writing. There’s a definite difference, not only in what interests me as far as subject matter goes, but also in style, from the way I use to write.
BIOGRAPHIES
The first books I do remember picking up in my childhood were biographies of famous people, mostly from American history, from the American Revolution through the nineteenth century. It was actually a series of books, with different authors. I wish I could remember now what the series was and just who I read about. I do remember having a voracious appetite for reading about these people and their accomplishments. They were real, and they were heroic. The middle school I attended had them in the school library, and I believe I read them all my fifth grade year.
MYSTERIES
From there, I moved to fiction. Big at that time (at least to me) were the mysteries of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. For some reason, I always found Nancy Drew more interesting. I believe I read nearly all of them, while I may have read one or two Hardy Boys novels. I also picked up a few books from the Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators, too, which became all the rage during that period of time.
FANTASY
Once I’d read a lot of those books, my attention turned to fantasy. Dragonriders of Pern was one of my favorite series by Anne McCaffrey and so were The Sword of Shannara books by Terry Brooks. My all-time favorite fantasy series, however, was the second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant trilogy by Stephen R. Donaldson. To me, Donaldson is the J.R.R. Tolkien of my generation.
SCI-FI
Science Fiction had some influence, too, though more through the Star Wars movies and the Star Trek and Doctor Who television series, now that I look back on it. I know I read something from Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and Robert A. Heinlein, but I can’t remember what. I just know they were titans of the genre. What I do remember reading was The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, where I discovered science fiction could be hilarious. I also read Slaughterhouse-Five and Catch-22, because they were required reading in high school.
COMIC BOOKS
When I was 14 or 15, I started collecting comic books. That was pretty late to come to the party, but better late than never. I mostly followed Marvel mags, never missing the X-Men, but also liking The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Ghost Rider and Captain America. I consider Chris Claremont, the X-Men writer during that period, to be the best comic book writer of all time.
I loved the characters, and their trials as much as I loved the action.
SPY NOVELS
From my late teens to my mid-thirties, I didn’t read a whole lot of anything. I was too busy, I guess, serving a church mission, getting married, having children, and trying to support a family. Somewhere in there, I worked in a bunch of the James Bond novels, as well as some of the Jason Bourne books.
DAN BROWN
When I got back to it, my tastes continued to evolve. I started reading things like The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons and The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown. In fact, I’ve read all of his novels.
J. K. ROWLING
Of course, I got swept up with my youngest son and virtually everyone else in the Harry Potter books.
HISTORICAL/POLITICAL
Books I read leading up to the writing of The Foolish and the Weak (I stopped reading books while writing so I wouldn’t be unduly influenced by anything) included: Seven Miracles That Saved America, by Chris and Ted Stewart. The book is one part historical fact, and one part historical fiction. I’ve read Chris Stewart’s The God of War, a military techno thriller, Frederick Forsyth’s The Cobra and Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.
AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I probably should mention three other books I read, not because they have bearing on my reading preferences or writing style, but because they led me directly to writing and self-publishing at this time. Those books would be Amanda Hocking‘s Trylle Trilogy.
FULL CIRCLE
My love for current events continues, as well, and shows through in The Foolish and the Weak. The internet is a wonderful source for all kind of news articles, commentary and blogs. I’m interested in faith, politics, technology, some pop culture, food, sports and cars. In one way or another, all of those topics are woven into The Foolish and the Weak.
