This was my journey to becoming a writer of fantasy:
***Warning: this post is a little lengthy and terribly self-indulgent - somewhere between a selfie and my own reality show. But I thought it was enlightening for me to throw down almost all of my influences in one place...
1972
Born. Nothing fantastical about that (other than my own umbilical cord tried to strangle me and failed) but you gotta start somewhere.
1977
Kindergarten - one of my first trips to a movie theater. Thanks, Dad!
1979
2nd Grade - my teacher read The Hobbit to us after lunch. In unrelated news, this is also when I learned the art of swearing.
1982
5th Grade - had to attend afterschool speech therapy, to address a whole litany of issues. As a homework of sorts, I had to read out loud to my mom. The choice? Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain...
Also wrote my first short story, a science fiction piece about space exploration. Won 2nd place prize in school district competition. (Hopefully that wasn't the crowning achievement of my literary career...)
1983
6th Grade - a passing interest in comic books reached new levels of obsession when introduced to the Uncanny X-Men at summer camp.
1984
7th Grade - December 25, to be exact. My father bought me the box set of the Lord of the Rings. I proceeded to read all 500+ pages of the Fellowship of the Ring... in one day. Best Christmas ever. It's been said that the first time your mind is blown is the best...
Late '80s
High school - door completely opened, I ventured deeper. Being a new kid, in a new school, in a new state (again) certainly didn't impede this exploration. My personal favorites from this time period:
David Eddings...
Terry Brooks...
Raymond E. Feist...
and Margaret Weis and Tracey Hickman (interestingly enough, I never got into D&D. RPGs on the other hand...)
Early - mid 1990s
College (English major but a shift towards works considered more "literary") and a variety of professional experiments gone wrong (public relations, advertising) led to the waning of my interest in all things fantasy, with one notable exception...
Robert Jordan.
I was inspired in other ways at this time, however. In film by screenplays written by...
Richard Linklater...
Kevin Smith...
Edward Burns....
Jon Favreau...
and Matt Damon/Ben Affleck.
6th Grade - a passing interest in comic books reached new levels of obsession when introduced to the Uncanny X-Men at summer camp.
1984
7th Grade - December 25, to be exact. My father bought me the box set of the Lord of the Rings. I proceeded to read all 500+ pages of the Fellowship of the Ring... in one day. Best Christmas ever. It's been said that the first time your mind is blown is the best...
Late '80s
High school - door completely opened, I ventured deeper. Being a new kid, in a new school, in a new state (again) certainly didn't impede this exploration. My personal favorites from this time period:
David Eddings...
Terry Brooks...
Raymond E. Feist...
and Margaret Weis and Tracey Hickman (interestingly enough, I never got into D&D. RPGs on the other hand...)
Early - mid 1990s
College (English major but a shift towards works considered more "literary") and a variety of professional experiments gone wrong (public relations, advertising) led to the waning of my interest in all things fantasy, with one notable exception...
Robert Jordan.
I was inspired in other ways at this time, however. In film by screenplays written by...
Richard Linklater...
Kevin Smith...
Edward Burns....
Jon Favreau...
and Matt Damon/Ben Affleck.
I remember at the time having a life-changing epiphany:
• These guys were my age...
• What they were writing about, I could write about...
And it wasn't happening just in the movie theater; novels written by people of my generation were being published, often to critical and/or commercial success. Novels by...
Douglas Coupland...
Nick Hornby...
and Alex Garland.
And so began the first novel...
1997 - 1999
Moved to San Francisco to pursue a graduate degree and a teaching career. And continued writing my novel in earnest. Convinced it would be a work of art - or at least the equivalent of a literary earthquake, I dropped out of grad school so I could finish it.
The end result? Remember the Beauty, a New Year's Eve/road trip novel about four friends in their late twenties trying to make meaning out of their messed up lives. Think of it as a mashup of On the Road, the Hangover, and Pinocchio (the Pleasure Island part, not the wooden puppet/nose-growing part).
It was brilliant! It was a masterpiece! It...
2000
It sucked, apparently. After two years of shipping it around to literary agents, editors, and even a few Hollywood insiders, I got nowhere. Devastated, I stopped writing completely.
But at least I rediscovered my love of fantasy literature. (This was the cover of A Game of Thrones that I purchased in 1998. Look at the cover - Jon Snow was Kit Harrington BEFORE Kit Harrington was Jon Snow!)
2001
Started teaching middle school English and History. Over time, I got exposed to new MG & YA fantasy novels and got to see first hand the impact they had on kids. Novels/series like...
Ranger's Apprentice...
Eragon...
The Lightning Thief...
• These guys were my age...
• What they were writing about, I could write about...
And it wasn't happening just in the movie theater; novels written by people of my generation were being published, often to critical and/or commercial success. Novels by...
Douglas Coupland...
Nick Hornby...
and Alex Garland.
And so began the first novel...
1997 - 1999
Moved to San Francisco to pursue a graduate degree and a teaching career. And continued writing my novel in earnest. Convinced it would be a work of art - or at least the equivalent of a literary earthquake, I dropped out of grad school so I could finish it.
The end result? Remember the Beauty, a New Year's Eve/road trip novel about four friends in their late twenties trying to make meaning out of their messed up lives. Think of it as a mashup of On the Road, the Hangover, and Pinocchio (the Pleasure Island part, not the wooden puppet/nose-growing part).
It was brilliant! It was a masterpiece! It...
2000
It sucked, apparently. After two years of shipping it around to literary agents, editors, and even a few Hollywood insiders, I got nowhere. Devastated, I stopped writing completely.
But at least I rediscovered my love of fantasy literature. (This was the cover of A Game of Thrones that I purchased in 1998. Look at the cover - Jon Snow was Kit Harrington BEFORE Kit Harrington was Jon Snow!)
2001
Started teaching middle school English and History. Over time, I got exposed to new MG & YA fantasy novels and got to see first hand the impact they had on kids. Novels/series like...
Ranger's Apprentice...
Eragon...
The Lightning Thief...
Fablehaven...
oh, and this one you might have heard of.
2009
Started writing again. Why fantasy? Ten years ago, I wrote to get published. When that end result didn't happen, I stopped writing altogether. This time around, I wanted to write for fun. I wanted it to be a part of my life. And that's why I chose fantasy.
(I still want to get published, though.)
2015
My first fantasy novel, the Last of the Magi, is done. It took a while because a) I have a pretty time-consuming day job (except in summer!), b) I have two young boys, and c) I have an unhealthy interest in spectator sports.
Actually, another major reason it took so long was that I ended up with several versions of it - one for MG/YA and another for a more grown-up market. The process of revising really brings a Mr. Hyde out of this Dr. Jekyll.
Future?
In addition to working on the sequel to the Last of the Magi and trying to improve my overall craft, I am taking steps to take writing from a just a past time/hobby to full-on career. Things like entering contests and going to writers' conventions and joining professional organizations.
And starting a blog.
Started writing again. Why fantasy? Ten years ago, I wrote to get published. When that end result didn't happen, I stopped writing altogether. This time around, I wanted to write for fun. I wanted it to be a part of my life. And that's why I chose fantasy.
(I still want to get published, though.)
2015
My first fantasy novel, the Last of the Magi, is done. It took a while because a) I have a pretty time-consuming day job (except in summer!), b) I have two young boys, and c) I have an unhealthy interest in spectator sports.
Actually, another major reason it took so long was that I ended up with several versions of it - one for MG/YA and another for a more grown-up market. The process of revising really brings a Mr. Hyde out of this Dr. Jekyll.
Future?
In addition to working on the sequel to the Last of the Magi and trying to improve my overall craft, I am taking steps to take writing from a just a past time/hobby to full-on career. Things like entering contests and going to writers' conventions and joining professional organizations.
And starting a blog.
Talk about big brothers influencing little brothers. I pretty much followed your whole 80's list myself book for book LOL.
ReplyDelete