I'm one of those rabid readers, the kind whose mother had to make a "no-books-at-the-dinner-table" rule. I love reading. I read all kinds of things - mystery, nonfiction, YA, children's, speculative fiction, classical literature, chick lit, and everything in-between (except horror, but I avoid horror in all media. I have a weak constitution.)
I don't know how other readaholics work, but I have a favorite genre. Fantasy. I know, I know. You're picturing some leftover hippie with purple streaks in her hair and several nose rings. Or a person too old to be living with her mother and their seventeen cats. But, there's just me - middle-class white chick who makes prejudiced statements about leftover hippies.
It's hard to say when my love affair with fantasy began. My earliest sort of spec-fic memories are from The Real Mother Goose. I aspired to be one of the little girls in the drawings, who wore frilly dresses and received diamonds from the queen.
I have early memories of fantasy movies - mostly Disney, but not all. I know that in third grade I wrote a whole fan-fic chapter for The Neverending Story. Still, I focused mostly on mystery back then. I loved Cam Jansen and Encyclopedia Brown and that girl who tapped on her braces while solving the werewolf mystery in her school. I graduated easily into Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden.
Around the Nancy Drew-Trixie Belden time, a relative introduced me to ElfQuest. I think I was a little young for the primal storylines, but there was a depth to the Pinis' storytelling that affected my writing; to this day, I tend to write in layers. Elquest is something of a cult, but it was also beautiful, haunting, and incredible fodder for fan-fic. I wrote Elfquest fan fic prolifically.
Tomorrow: Beyond ElfQuest
What is your genre of choice, and how did you get there?
Mine is science fiction. My father used to watch Star Trek TNG when I was little. I didn't really get into sci-fi books until a few years ago when I read Ender's Game.
ReplyDeleteI'm one of those rabid readers, the kind whose mother had to make a "no-books-at-the-dinner-table" rule.
ReplyDeleteSee, we were separated at birth.
I read my first sci-fi book in early grade school (first or second grade I think). It was a picture book about a robot man in space. I was hooked. I read all sorts of kids sci-fi after that. I read my first real sci-fi novel (Robert Silverberg) when I was 10. I've always loved books about the impossible, the things only imagined.
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