Okay, first question for this new blog feature:
Who is your favorite author and why? (include favorite book by them, why do you like it)
A friend on Twitter told me that this is nearly an impossible question since her favorite author has changed over the years and is still constantly in flux. (Which was also expressed by KC below before I added this part) So, a corollary to this question: If you were stranded on a deserted island and could only have one book, what would it be? Is the author of that book your all-time favorite author or someone else?
Stein's Station 
It’s an almost impossible question! There are so many who were inspirational at different points in my life/career or who have influenced my writing, but I think I’ll have to say David Eddings. I read Pawn of Prophecy when I was 10 and it not only made me realize how many worlds you could find in books but solidified my desire to be a writer. His Belgariad & Mallorean series are regular comfort reads for me.
Isaac Asimov is like that for me. I discovered his robot books in grade school and graduated to his Foundation trilogy a little later. I’ve read every book of his (that I own…I don’t own them all) at least twenty times each over the years.
Your comment that this was an almost impossible question was also the comment of a friend on Twitter (with the same reasoning as well), so I added a corollary since you answered. Your answer still fits, though. Thanks so much for answering so quickly!
A friend from Twitter replies: “Dex in Blue” by Amy Lane..There is something about those 2 guys that pulls on my heart. I have read it at least 5 times.
When you put it that way, I’d have to go the practical route and choose some type of survival handbook (but I know that’s not what you intended). As far as pleasure reading, my all-time favorite book is The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel. Ayla, the main character, is separated from her people when she’s a small child and is rescued from near-death by a clan of lesser-evolved humanoids. She grows up thinking she’s ugly and stupid because she’s so clearly different from everyone else in the clan and has trouble adhering to their way of life. She is, of course, actually beautiful and intelligent, and she’s better adapted for survival; she just doesn’t know it. It’s a heartachingly beautiful adaptation of the “ugly duckling” theme.
Oh, geez…it’s a multi-part question. No, I wouldn’t say Jean M. Auel is my favorite author. I haven’t read anything of hers outside of this series. My favorite author is currently Jay Bell. I’ve adored every one of his books that I’ve read, starting with Something Like Summer (which is currently being made into a film!). His stories are packed full of emotion, which I love.
Oh, I loved that book! I read the whole series, but the first one was the best character study, in my opinion.
Oh, wow, I loved that book SO much when I was a kid! I was just about the age that Ayla is in the book when I read it and Valley of Horses for the first time (probably about 9 or 10) and I wanted to be her so badly. I even made myself a little sling and tried to learn to use it. That’s one of those series that I haven’t read in a long time and I’m kind of afraid to revisit because I have such incredibly good memories of it; I’m afraid of discovering that I’ve changed too much to enjoy it anymore.
It’s also not a bad choice for a desert island survival handbook, with all the descriptions of handmade tools, weapons, and plant medicines!
Great point, Layla! 🙂
Oh yeah. I can see that. I’ve reread a couple of books over the years that I LOVED when I was younger and was just left disappointed upon the reread.
As KC says, it is a nearly impossible question as I feel I’ve evolved as a reader as much as a writer, or anything else for that matter. But one book that will stick in my mind forever is one I read as a 12 year old child.
Back Home, by Michelle Magorian. Resonate, emotive and absolutely timeless.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/257751
I also grew up on Enid Blyton, and The Circus of Adventure is my favourite book of hers.
Hmm, now how does that tie in to MM?
I don’t think it does 😉
LOL. Perfectly okay. Doesn’t have to tie in to M/M at all.
I think right now my favorite author is Cardeno C. His books always make me happy. (That will change next week.) As for the one book on an island, I think that I would take JK Rowling’s A Casual Vacancy. I got the book for Christmas and keep meaning to read it. My problem it’s in hardcover and I have a hard time getting through paper books. It has to be digital for me. But I have always loved Harry Potter, so I am sure that I will love it. I just need to be stranded on an island first;)
That’s an interesting twist to the island thing. I was kind of thinking you’d take your favorite book to reread for eternity, but you have a point. You might not want to take one you’ve already read, at all! You might want to take one by a favored (if not favorite) author that you haven’t read yet, but you’re pretty sure will be good enough to reread until you get rescued.
I like that insight. Thank you.
Oh my gosh, what a difficult question to answer! My groaning bookshelves can tell the tale, I think. 😀 There are authors whose technical skill I admire, authors that are comfort reads, authors who have been favorites since childhood and those that are new discoveries …
If I had to pick just one, I think I’d have to say Terry Pratchett (but ask me tomorrow, it may change! *g*) People often think of him as strictly a comic author, but his books manage to be profound and thought-provoking as well as fast-paced and funny, a very rare combination! And he writes a wide range of memorable and likable characters, including some of the best female characters out there. He’s one of the few authors that I can pick up basically ANY of his books (and there are a lot of them!) and know for certain that I’m going to enjoy it.
For my desert island book — and again, this is today’s selection; ask me tomorrow and I might say something different! — I’m going to go with Watership Down by Richard Adams. I first read the book when I was a young child, and I’ve read it many times since. I can always enjoy spending time with Hazel and Bigwig and Fiver in Adams’ gorgeously depicted English countryside.
Oh yeah…Terry Pratchett. I loved the Discworld series.
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If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, the book I could read for eternity is Anderson Cooper’s memoir “Dispatches from the Edge.” Yeah, the CNN news anchor guy.
I read a startling amount of memoir because I’m always saying Real People drama is so much more awesome than Fake People drama. Plus it’s kind of that truth is stranger than fiction effect, and what the human spirit is truly capable of when pushed to the brink. By studying real living beings we are able to add depth to our fictional ones. 😀
His way with words is maaaaaarvelous and I just want to roll all over it forever. Here’s one of my favorite quotes!
“As a boy looking at the globe, I grew up believing, as most people do, that the earth is round. Smoothed like a stone by thousands of years of evolution and revolution. Whittled by time. Scraped by space. I thought that all the nations and oceans, the rivers and valleys, were already mapped out, named, and explored. But in truth, the world is constantly shifting: shape and size, location in space. It’s got edges and chasms, too many to count. They open up, close, reappear somewhere else. Geologists may have mapped out the planet’s tectonic plates – hidden shelves of rock that grind, one against the other, forming mountains, creating continents – but they can’t plot the fault lines that run through our heads, divide our hearts.”
Yeeeeaaaaaaah. *dreamy sigh*
-Lex
Oh, I love that excerpt. I don’t read memoirs much. Maybe I should start.
If you want memoirs by gay authors you should REALLY read “I Am Not Myself These Days” by Josh Kilmer-Purcell and the followup “The Bucolic Plague.” Josh is one half of the Fabulous Beekman Boys (Gay Goat Farmers in Upstate New York) and they are also the winners of the last season of Amazing Race (by SOME MIRACLE. I was only watching for them. LOL)
“I Am Not Myself These Days” is Josh’s story about his suuuuuper flamboyant days as a drag queen and him falling in with the really wrong crowd. He ends up in a long term relationship with a crack whore (not making that up) and the tragic romance of it all as his lover maintains he shouldn’t be into the drugs like he is. The guy he ended up dating after this dude, (and recently married) encouraged him to write the book.
The second “The Bucolic Plague” is a tale of how Josh and the guy that told him to write the first book (Brent) were struck with temporary insanity and bought a goat farm in the picturesque town of Sharon Springs, New York. They’re Manhattanites. Josh is an ad exec. Brent once upon a time was the VP of Martha Stewart Omnimedia. So safe to say… they knew not a damned thing about farming. Hijinks of course… Ensue.
I read the first overnight, slept four hours, and read the second the very next day, finishing that night. I had read them both in 18 hours. I REGRET NOTHING! XD I even got them signed by Josh when they came to my area. He and Brent are such SUPER Good People. 😀
-Lex
Those do sound really interesting.
My favorite is “Undercover Sins” by Hayley B. James. I have no idea why, because I’ve read so many books, but that book and those two main characters just do it for me as well as the amazing, tension-filled plot. An amazing story.
Haven’t read that one. One side effect of this feature, I’m finding, is that it’s adding to the list of books I want to read.
I always hesitate when asked questions such as these (just got asked for a blog what ONE book I’d take with me if I was to be stranded on a deserted island). There are so many favorites, but if I HAD to choose just one author, it would be JRR Tolkien. Between his Lord of the Rings and all the supplemental books, and his wonderful world of Middle Earth, I don’t think I could ever tire of his writing. (Although, I must admit, I do skip over the ‘songs’ he puts in there; not much of a poetry/lyric fan.)
Ah yes. Tolkien is definitely on my list of ‘top 10 favorite authors of all time’. I’ve always wanted to live in the Shire…have my very own hobbit hole.