We are asked to tell our blogger friends which books we most like to read and which authors inspire us. For those of you who know me well enough, this is a no brainer. However I would like to tell you about another author whose work I admire and have throughly enjoyed reading over the years.
The author is Terry Brooks. I don't know how many of you are familiar with his work, but his stories are masterpieces of fantasy. They border on high fantasy, but young adults and kids love to read about the amazing worlds he's created. He has written several series. Start with the Landover series. I found them to be most magical and great for younger readers. Then work your way into the Sword of Shanara series... then the countless others. He's written dozens of books and you will really enjoy his amazing writing and world building. If you like elves, druids, and mysticism you will LOVE these books.
Brooks influenced me in one major way: Description. Many of my "fans," as I us this term loosely, admire my descriptive prose. I am a stickler for beautiful detail with a lyrical flow. This I learned from Brooks.
From JK Rowling, who everyone knows I adore more that words could say, I learned about how to create wonderful chemistry between characters. Will you ever forget Harry, Ron, and Hermione? Their chemistry is magical. Rowlings is the queen of chemistry amongst other things.
I not only love fantasy, but I love the classics as well. Dickens, The Bronte sisters, Austen, Alcott, Anderson, Poe, and even Dostoyevsky. But I write fantasy and contemporary. At least for now. Both y/a and m/g.
Now please hop over to Robyn Campbell's blog here, and then Bonnie Ray's blog here, to continue the chain. For those of you who do and leave comments there are some amazing prizes from several of the people in this chain. Critiques and books, who could ask for anything more. You have until Sept. 22nd to comment.
Don't forget to sign up for my blogfest on Sept. 23rd A quick click on the linky and you're in. Don't let summer end yet.
Have a great day everyone.
23 comments:
I love posts like this - I run across so many new authors/titles which I haven't read yet, and it's far easier to choose new reading material this way than to simply scroll endlessly through lists or sites like Amazon and try to guess what I should choose.
Excellent choice Michael! Brooks is one of my favorite authors, and I discovered fantasy through his Shannara series when I was a kid. One of my inspirations for writing.
I really enjoyed The Landover series too. JK Rowling has been a great inspiration for me.
You might like Julie Kagawa's series. It's a great fantasy set in a fantastic world.
Great book/author choices. It would be hard for me to narrow my picks down.
Brooks is really good. Have you kept up with the series? I especially liked the ones where one of the druids got caught behind the Forbidding. I forgot the name of the novel but it was awesome.
Terry Brooks is an excellent choice, I love his books! This sounds like a fun blogfest. I'll have to check it out.
Great choices! Love, love, love JK! And yes, I do know you absolutely love her.
Terry Brooks. I will check him out. Thanks, my friend. :-)
It is always good to check out new author's. Thank you.
The Nancy Drew Mysteries began my reading road and crazy wild love of mysteries. Since my birthday number 12, a gift from my Papa. Being naturally curious (nosey), I love the hunt, the solving of the mystery.
Part of me is a world famous detective. I long to solve mysteries. Mystery solving is treasure hunting.
Chocolate covered cherries and old fashioned Hershey bars. No nuts. ❤
I've read a couple of his books. Anne McCaffrey inspired me. I picked up The White Dragon when I was thirteen and from that point on, I wanted to be an author.
I loved books about magic when I was a kid but my favs were L'Engle's Time series: ("A wrinkle in Time", "A Wind in the Door...") and I don't think even JK Rowling can match L'Engle for imagination- although of course I was also enamored with The Narnia Chronicles. I read them AT LEAST 7 times (the library I checked them out from had my name and only mine all in a row at least that many times! lol)
Very cool blog chain! JK is pretty amazing and character chemistry for sure.
It's so hard to choose, but Anne of Green Gables and all of L.M. Montgomery's books really influenced me. I owned (and still own) quite a collection and they are all well-used.
Michael :
I had to race off to work when I first read your post, but I now have my post up on who started my dream. It's up to us to keep the dream alive that was handed off to us! Roland
Oh yes! It's been ages since I've read Terry Brooks but I loved his stories.
"Beautiful detail with a lyrical flow" -- a great skill to have as a writer!
The high fantasy work is an interesting mix compared to Rowling, but each has something wonderful to offer. :)
I haven't read any Terry Brooks yet, but I keep hearing that I should. Maybe now's the time? :)
I've never read a lot of fantasy, so it's great that you're offering up this rec for Zach (who loves fantasy MG/YA). I'll be sure to check them out and pass them on to him!
erica
for some reason, I feel that even though JK Rowling has changed a lot of people's lives, she is sorrily under acknowledged when people talk about their inspirations. She and Harry Potter, to me, are like a hometown. Not something that you really think about and you move on from, but are always there, always supportive and without them, you wouldn't be the same.
JK certainly has brilliant ideas - more intimidating than inspiring to me, though, I have to say. :)
Glad to find a fellow SFF/fantasy writer through the Write Campaign. For me, I fell in love with reading and writing with The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe and the Pern novels by Anne McCaffrey. I have a special fondness for The Sword of Shannara too. :)
Terry Brooks really is awesome. For me it was Patricia Polacco. :-)
Yay! Someone who likes the classics!
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