Who or what has been the biggest influence in my writing career?
That is our blog topic for the month of July and it's an important question. It forces us to take an in-depth look at the people and events that shape our writing. 
Nearly all writers were, or still are, avid readers. I'm no exception. Books have been shaping how I think and how I see the world since my parents first read me a bedtime story. When I was young, I loved to read stories by Louis L'Amore. Cowboys, Indians, gunfights, the heroine in distress saved by the gunslinger turned hero, what more does an teenage heart need?
When I was a little older, I discovered Andre Norton and worlds beyond our own where human explorers battled or befriended alien creatures in the far reaches of space. I learned to look at the stars in the night sky in a whole new light and I was filled with wonder at what might actually exist out there. As I will forever remain a diehard fan of the orginal Star Trek and Stargate SG 1, that sense of wonder and curiosity has never left me.
It was in the 1974 that I first read a historical romance that blew my mind. The book was The Wolf and the Dove by Kathleen Woodwiss. What a hero! What a HEROINE! What GREAT LOVE SCENES!!!
I was hooked on romances from that day forward. I read Regencies, I read about knights in shining armor and stories about desert Sheiks. I read and read and read until one day, I put down the book I had been reading and realized that I wanted to do that, too.
I wanted to tell stories about cowboys, knights, space travelers, cops, soldiers and whoever else. But most of all, I wanted to tell about the women who made a gunslinger, a disinhereted knight or a desert Sheik into a hero to die for. In the end, it is all about LOVE.
So there you have it. Books and the love of books have been the biggest influence on my writing career. From the pages penned by others evolved a dream that I would one day join their very special fellowship. To writers everywhere, I say ladies and gentlemen take a bow. You have no idea how far your words will travel or how many dreams they may inspire.
Now its your turn to tell me about authors who have inspired you.
4 comments:
Agatha Christie. Her mystery plots are amazing.
Robert Louis Stevenson. I adored Treasure Island. It started off as a bedtime story to his son. I fell in love with pirates and Jim Hawkins.
My favorite sci fi/fantasy writer was Piers Anthony and his Xanth books. My best friend and I would pretend we were from Xanth, but trapped in Mundania.
My favorite romance writers growing up were Heather Graham and Jude Devereux.
Melissa, I loved Piers Anthony's Xanth books. What a great storyteller.
I didn't read my first true romance until after I was married. Someone had given my mom a box of books. They smelled musty but I wanted to find out what the fascination was. I was hooked after that.
Before that, I read Sidney Sheldon, Stephen King and Sandra Brown.
Gosh, it's hard to narrow down the authors who have inspired me.
Definitely Laura Ingalls Wilder -- I devoured her books when I was a kid.
And Cynthia Wright -- a classmate handed me her book, Caroline, when I was 14. It was the first historical romance I had ever read. I was thrilled to discover there were books that had romance and history.
Other writers that inspire me because I love their unique characters, their emotion-packed stories: Rebecca Paisley, Sharon Sala, Marilyn Pappano.
My favorite series for the past few years has been J.D. Robb's In Death books. I cannot get enough of Eve and Rourke. I need to re-read the series from the beginning so I can study how she reveals the various layers of the characters from one book to the next.
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