#MondayMuse Guest Post by @adtrosper ‘Writers Who Inspire Me’ #MondayBlogs

Kicking off the Big Blue Takeover we have a guest post from fantasy author, A.D.Trosper who writes the wonderfully descriptive, Dragon’s Call series.

Audra is sharing her Monday Muse – not one, not two, but four of the writers who inspired her writing career. Over to Audra…

Inspirational people surround us at every turn.  To celebrate some of the incredible people who continue to motivate us on our writing journey we look at the writers who are our artistic inspiration

Writers who inspired me by A.D.Trosper

I was eleven when I stumbled across the first book that truly inspired me. I loved fantasy and had watched most fantasy movies that were out then. But there weren’t a lot of fantasy books around. My mother read, a lot, but she didn’t really read that genre. In addition to that, I was extremely wrapped up in horses. My life revolved around learning about them and daydreaming about them. Since I hadn’t really been exposed to fantasy books, it never occurred to me to look for them. So I sought out anything I could find on horses.

Then one day in a little book store that no longer exists, I came across a cover. I’m glad it was cover out instead of spine out or it wouldn’t have caught my eye. It was and it did. It had horses on the front, but they were fantasy horses. I eagerly read the back and then begged my parents for the book. I’d never gotten around to reading thicker books, often preferring shorter stories. At three hundred forty four pages (yes I know the exact amount of pages from memory) this one was thick for me at the time. My mother wasn’t sure I would actually take it home and read it or if I planned to just stare at the cover. My pleading must have been good enough because I left with it clutched in my hand.

I read it. I spent every waking moment reading it. And when I finished it, I started reading it a second time. The author, Mary Stanton, had done something absolutely amazing for me. She combined my deep love of horses with my deep love of fantasy. I was totally sucked in and transported. It was my introduction to real books.

Because of her, I started writing short stories. Because of her, I started writing fan fiction about the horses in the book, even though I had no idea it was called fan fiction at the time and those stories never went anywhere but my notebooks.

Then one day, my best friend introduced me to R.A. Salvatore and Drizzt Do’Urden. The tales spun of a dark elf so different from his people inspired me to write more. She also introduced me to Christopher Pike, who wrote YA paranormal (not necessarily romance, but there was some) many moons ago when I was teenager. Again, I was inspired to write, this time about teenagers and their ridiculously funny and scary school. It never left my notebook either and I never finished it, but it was fun.

 

Later, my brother introduced me to Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. I was hooked from the first page. His world and story were so intricate and detailed; I wished I could live in them and I dreamed of writing something like that.

Most people see the dragons in my fantasy series and think, Anne McCaffrey. And no doubt, her stories are great and I enjoyed them, but I didn’t find them until later in life, after my ideas of stories and writing had already been developed. When I first set foot on my path to writing my first book, it was Stanton, Salvatore, Pike, and most of all Jordan who inspired me to put words on the page. Words I know would one day be read by more than just me. I knew going in that I wasn’t as good as these authors. Particularly Salvatore and Jordan. I hoped that if I worked hard, I might one day at least stand in their shadows.

I’ve read lots of books since that first foray into actual novels at the age of eleven. So many I can’t even begin to count the number or list all of the titles. But when I think of who inspired me to be the best writer I can be, to put first pen to paper and later fingers to keyboard, it is those four authors who stand out. Through multiple moves, even across country when book numbers had to be scaled back, it is these four authors who have never left my shelves. I still have the first, battered and completely worn out copy of Mary Stanton’s Heavenly Horse from the Outermost West. It’s in two pieces now, the cover missing, but I can’t bear to part with it even though I have an undamaged copy on my shelf and a digital on my Kindle. I’ve had to replace the other authors’ books as well due to too many readings. Even my hardbacks of Jordan’s books fell apart from too much love and devotion.

Do you have an author that inspired you to write, or perhaps you read a book series that guided you to a specific genre?

Find out more about A.D.Trosper on her Website, or follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

You can BUY all the Dragon’s Call series on Amazon UK and Amazon US

Read my interview with A.D.Trosper HERE.

Next up on the Big Blue Takeover is author, Frank Lattimore.