Author Appreciation Week - Part One!!!

Wow. This is going to be tough! I could write about authors I read when I was young (like CS Lewis, LM Montgomery, Avi, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Ellen Raskin, Judy Blume, RL Stine, and oh so many others) or authors I read as a young adult (like Michael Crichton, VC Andrews, Jean M. Auel, Stephen King, Lilian Jackson Braun, and Agatha Christie), but I am going to focus on the authors I have read since I began seriously writing (ie they actually write in my genre).

There are a few authors that have been instrumental in my desire to become an author and my molding as an author. I picked five to talk to you about this week and will give you one a day in the order that I originally read their books.

So here goes:


JK Rowling, I salute you!!

I remember hearing about Harry Potter after I graduated from high school. It was all the rage in the book stores, and I saw that lightning bolt all over! But I was a bit of a book snob back then, and I didn't want to read something just because it was popular. Then the movie was advertised. I saw the world Rowling created come to life in bits and pieces (the movie trailer), and I was hooked! (And I always have to read the book before I see the movie...) I asked for the books and got 1-4 for Christmas. I think it took me 5 days to devour all four books.

Then I had to wait some ungodly amount of time (six months?) for Book Five!! Oh, the agony!! How did you people who started with Sorcerer's Stone do it!?!? I insisted that my mom (and other friends) read them. And they did. And they loved them too!

I must say, The Deathly Hallows is one of my favorite books of all time! I loved everything about it! Rowling is absolutely brilliant. Every question, every little clue, it's all right there. There was a moment in GoF that I noticed (a gleam in Dumbledore's eye) and could never figure out. Until the end of DH. Genius.

I am in no way claiming or striving to be "The Next JK Rowling", but her world building and story connections are something I strive for in my stories. I have little comments here and there that when (if) the book is reread after the entire series is complete, the reader will (hopefully) say, "Oh my god! Look! Look right here! That's because of such and such!"

Plus she was a single mother when she wrote the series, and I am inspired by her tenacity and perseverance. It is NOT easy being a single parent. And as I am a struggling single parent, she is definitely my inspiration in that category!

Thank you, JK Rowling!! I appreciate you!!!

PS - For all my Twitter friends, are you following @jk_rowling?


Tomorrow... The author whose books inspired me to actually write. Yup. To sit down and write.