What Writer Inspires You?

I have been an avid reader for as long as I can remember. According to legend, I was reading by the age of three – which wasn’t so much reading as repeating back the words to stories that my mom read to me so often. It was a cool party trick that amused adults. Despite starting my life as a con artist prodigy of sorts, I really did love books. I devoured them with an insatiable curiosity. When I wasn’t under the dining room table, obscured from view by the long tablecloth, creating adventurous scenarios for my Fisher Price Little People, I was reading or being read to. A. A. Milne was and still is, one of my heroes. My dad was not so much into reading me books, so comics were our thing. Charles Schultz and Bill Keane became every day favorites.

By the time I could go to the library or book store on my own, I had already found authors that I loved. I was reading Laura Ingalls Wilder by first grade. By third, L M Montgomery captured my attention. It wasn’t long before Louisa Mae Alcott provided me with all the drama, humor, and romantic attention my middle school heart desired. Finally, Jane Austen rounded out my love for female authors of that genre. I did not stop there. I was obsessed with the humor of Mark Twain and the poetry of Robert Frost. Nathaniel Hawthorne took a while to get into but the House of Seven Gables was thrilling. I read a Tale of Two Cities and War and Peace before I graduated from grade school, just because I could and as an added bonus, I confused the school librarian who never knew what to do with me, but admired my love of literature.

As high school and college came around, I tamped down on my love of classics because I was forced to read books that I despised, though I do hold a begrudging respect for Shakespeare. That’s a post for another day. Today, I read mostly for pleasure – silly, sweet, romantic and funny are my usual go to. I have read every JD Robb book ever written (the latest is just waiting for me to download). I binge novels by Lucy Score. As problematic as JK Rowling is, the Harry Potter series is an unequivocal masterpiece of writing. There is not a flaw in the plotline (I have read the series numerous times just searching for one.) I love mysteries and crime nearly as much as I love romance.

Every one of these writers and so many more inspire me. Who is the writer that inspires you? Do you remember the first writer you could not get enough of?