Late night word count-upping session...

Forgive the ramblings and less than stellar grammar and punctuation. It was really late!
The late night musings of one who needs some words to meet her writing goals and beat everyone in her writing group for a daily total. Is that nice? No. Am I trying anyway? Oh yeah.
Some of my literary influences.
Not saying that I am under the influence-totally different thing-but I have had some clear influences on my life as a writer.
From the beginning.
I do remember Dick and Jane and Sally in first grade. They always had such great adventures and one day I would have a granddaughter who looked a lot like little Sally.
My next recollection of a book was, Gus, the Friendly Ghost. It was the tale of Gus, a ghost who just couldn’t be the scary entity he was destined to be because he got lonely when the family who worked for being a haunter went home for the winter. He befriends a rather hateful mouse whom he later has to put the word on after the mouse is nasty to the woman of the house. One of my favorite parts was the listing of cheese recipes Gus made for his friend. It sounded like the list Bubba used in the classic Forrest Gump movie. We still have this book and I spent many an hour reading it first to myself and then to my brother Bill and later to Rachel and Drew and Veronica. I think Rach must have it at her house now. I miss it.
Next came the Boxcar Children. Those poor lost children who finally found their grandfather and lived such cool adventures afterwards. My love of “great” mysteries began with poor little Benny and Violet.
And Heidi was such a good story too. I named my goats Heidi and Peter. And then my dad sold them…the bitterness remains.
Now we go into some prime reading when I really kicked off the voraciousness. Trixie Beldon and some twins whose names I have forgotten could be purchased at the rate of one a week at the Ben Franklin store on the Clinton Square. And the library had a whole shelf of my beloved George, Beth, and Nancy of the Nancy Drew series. And never let us not forget her friends the Hardy Boys.
Now we come to one of my favorite writers. Lois Duncan. She wrote such spooky teen books as “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” Another, “Ransom” was about students who accidently kill their English teacher in a prank gone wrong. Duncan later went on to fame with the Hotel for Dogs series, but it was her early, “Down a Dark Hall” that made me hooked. Ghostly piano playing, still a favorite device. I enjoyed her books so much I wrote her a fan letter last year. And she responded.
At this point in my reading career (around fourth and fifth grades) I read everything I could get my hands on. My father used to tell me reading at the table would give me an ulcer. I found out later he might have exaggerated the consequences.
It was around this time I started my habit of just going down the stacks and randomly picking out books. I still do this; especially during the summers. I have gotten to read some unusual and great books I would not have if I hadn’t embraced this method of selection.
Mom joined the Harlequin Romance Book Club at some point and that’s where I got started on a lifetime of reading romance books. We used to race to see who could get to the books first with Mom picking out the titles she liked first. She also had some racier books which seem pretty tame now compared to those I see sold. But at the time they seemed much more educational than the regular Harlequins.
In high school I remember liking the Diary of Anne Frank which I now teach. I also liked the Shakespeare and have continued reading those plays at various times in my life. It is one thing that I miss from teaching high school. Shakespearian theatre begins a student’s freshman year in my schoo. However, I do cheat and put a little Shakespeare in my lessons.
I remember reading a fair amount of histories about British queens. I still like those stories today, even if the current Queen of England turned me down for a visit when I was in her country.
In Senior English I really only remember two novels that we read. The Great Gatsby that I liked mostly and Heart of Darkness that I did not. It was tragic, but the symbolism appealed to me.
The other book, Heart of Darkness, did not appeal to me. My teacher Mr. Webb said that maybe I didn’t have enough life experience to appreciate it and that I might when I got older. For some reason I ended up with the school’s copy and tried to read it later in life. I still didn’t like the book and told Mr. Webb so, when I returned the original copy many, many years later when I had the opportunity to do some observations at my old school.
One thing I picked up at the library during the summers was the bathroom readers’ series of books. Oh, the things I could learn. And I learned a lot about literature. I also learned that you really don’t have to read all of great literature for people to think you are well read. Get the bathroom readers, read the plot line synopsis, and memorize a couple of key lines. Easy-peasy!
From my children I learned about the joys of Bunnicula and Harold and my favorite Chester. I even loved the “kid’, Howie.
I also discovered Hank, the Cowdog. A true classic.
Then I get to some of the books that have influenced me as an adult. There have been some great literary works of note in here, but I am a little ashamed to say that Stephen King and Oprah both made a big difference in my life in the area.
She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb, a former Oprah book, was really an eye opener and made me root for the main character. I also enjoyed his book about twins, This Much I Know is True. I think it even helped me a little with my own to come later.
But I am still angry with Oprah when it comes to how she treated the author of A Million Little Pieces. Watch the interview. SHE is the one who said it was all true. He just agreed. Heck, I would have agreed. He was on her show and she was Oprah! And she later proved how God like she thought she was when she brought down her wrath for the author daring….Daring to lie to the all powerful one that is Oprah. Get over yourself, woman.
I loved being scared by Stephen King when he went the true horror route and not SciFi. (Sorry geeks, just not my genre of choice.) Pet Semetary…which encouraged me to spell cemetery as cemet a ry (Only all together as one word. Dang auto correct) until auto correct forced me to learn the correct spelling, remains one of the scariest things I have ever read. Forget all of you zombie lovers now, King did it long and ago, and oh so much better. Scary zombie pets and kids…a dream…er…nightmare. And I loved Misery the book, not the movie. The book’s ending was so much better. But the Green Mile’s movie simply rocked.
From my grandson in the last few years I learned the joys of The Hungry Caterpillar, Smiley the Shark, and a reminder of one his sister’s favorites too, Goodnight Gorilla. There truly is nothing better in this world that a children’s book with beat up and worn covers with ragged pages. People often ask what I think will make their kids do better in school. Simple Answer-Start early. Reading books over and over is the one true thing that makes a child better in school. That, and saying nursery rhymes together.
I have owned more than one trashy novel featuring Fabio as a cowboy and a Viking and other characters too. I have read all of the biggies in Romance at some point in my life. Norah Roberts as Nora Roberts…no J.D. Robb for me. And I have even had Nora fall on my leg when she tripped on her dress on her way up to the podium to receive another RITA award at RWA’s National Convention. Yes, I tell everyone that story and no, none of her writing abilities magically wore off on my thigh. It has taken me sitting down and committing.
I also have a huge love affair that stops short of complete weirdo psycho fan-sometimes maybe just short (witness willingness to dress up as one of her characters and try to be in website pictures of her tours…and I am on there twice)is with author Janet Evanovich. I have loved and laughed gut-bustingly out loud at her stories. Granted some books were better than others, but the best ones absolutely rocked and made me rock with laughter.
Author Joan Hess came to me even before Janet Evanovich and her humorous stories of crazy small town life inspired me to try my own…which I never finished, but maybe I will come back to it someday.
And I have read the books of the women who have been helping me learn to become writers. C. J. Winters or Connie taught me that brevity and humor are important. Betty Winslow taught me even a person from Holden, MO can publish a book. Jim Butcher taught me the most in a lecture he did where I learned about Scene and Sequel and more of what it takes to be a real writer. His wife Shannon allowed me to be a reader of her books as she began the journey of writing and I have been able to see the progress as she has come along. My friend Cindy has shocked me just a little with the genre she has ended up being published in, but what skilled writing. I have rejoiced with Dyann Love Barr over her first publication and been in awe of the prolific Val who has fought her way to success in several genres. And other real writers have helped me so much along the way. Jan, Amy, Carla, Brenda, Alicia, and now I am getting to see a new writer, Denise Grover Swank, become a published writer on her terms. And I can’t wait to see what all of these people do next.
And I cannot end a piece on writing that has influenced me without mentioning my favorite book, Of Mice and Men. Others see it differently, but to me it is a perfect story of love and commitment between people during times that are hard. And that is the kind of love I strive to see in my own life…without the killing, obviously.
And I am done for today. I have reached my goal of being a Nanowrimo winner with words to spare and now I am going to go on and do whatever challenges being a writer brings me next.
And I get to wear the winner’s shirt.