FAW writer Mart Allard challenged me to write seven things (anything) about writing. So, here’s my list.
First though, I found as I wrote my seven statements that several things included stories and novels that influenced my writing, so I found it impossible to separate writing from reading.
In 4th grade, I wrote my first stories using images from magazines and the Sears catalog. My first story without an image prompt was entitled “Blood on the Saddle” a hodgepodge of my love for John Wayne and Edgar Allen Poe.
I have read Jane Eyre over 10 times. Jane Eyre provided my first glimpse of goddess imagery in literature which provided a base for my own goddess imagery in my writing.
I got kicked out of AP English in high school, but won the Amaranth Award for creative writing when I graduated.
My favorite and most influential sci/fi and fantasy writers are Frank Herbert, Roger Zelazny, Tanith Lee, Kate Elliott, Angela Carter, and Joan Vinge.
My favorite poet is Lynda Hull. There is crossover between Hull’s urban grit and the scenes I write in my urban fantasy.
When I write, I prefer to use the computer because I type over 70 words a minute and that just about keeps up with my brain.
And, when I write, I listen to the same playlist over and over and over. All of it is wordless new age music.