Influences

‘What are my influences as a writer’ is a question I read on Goodreads.

Well, I feel like this is fairly simple to answer.

The book series that impacted me the most was Tamora Pierce’s Circle of Magic series.

I was nine years old when my half-brother got the book from the library and I asked if I could read it. At that point I had read to exhaustion the books in the Children’s Section and I hadn’t yet moved on to chapter books. I have always been a somewhat ordered person in that I thought because I was a child I couldn’t read beyond that point.

It opened my eyes to the world of fantasy and creative writing in a whole new way. I was obsessed. From that point on, I consumed books from young adult to adult, from fantasy to non-fiction. The whole of the library was opened to me.

Tamora Pierce certainly was the most influential in showing me what could be written about. I still sometimes reread her Lioness Quartet, Immortals Quartet, and Protector of the Small Quartet.

But from there, I would say there were several authors who influenced my way of thinking in my early life: Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman (Dragonlance series), R. A. Salvatore (Drizzt books), Angie Sage (Septimus Heap), Cornelia Funke (Inkheart).

I was pretty obsessed with fantasy most of my child and teen years, but I had a moment after watching Robert Downey Jr.’s “Chaplin” when out of curiosity I read “My Autobiography” by Charlie Chaplin. It was the largest book I ever read and besides a few non-fiction books that were fairly simple it was the first biography. It was instrumental in showing me how everyday people had lives as vivid as the fictional ones I read.

I wish I could say that after that point I started reading a larger variety of genres, but I started worked when I was sixteen and life got in the way of my reading and writing. Then I was given the miraculous gift of motherhood. My son was a bit of a stinker and he made reading all but impossible so I delved head-first into the world of TV.

I had always enjoyed TV but not in the same way I had books. I could go on and on about the characters in TV and movies that influenced me, but that would need a whole different post. I will say that as a result of my time home with my adorable, hands-on son I got my first taste of a whole new genre I had never read or watched before: crime shows. The procedural really opened my eyes to a different way of thinking.

Now, authors that I think of as a personal influence now when I think of the kind of writers I want to emulate is, obviously, Tolkien with his unmatched linguistic skill, but also Rowling with her interweaving stories, and Alcott because of her strong emotional connections.

And while it may sound cheesy, I am my own influence. I often think of the young girl I used to be and the excitement I felt. I think of my growth as a writer and person. I also think of who I want to be in the future. With every book I write, I hope that I am a little bit better.