Every day we make the decision to get out of bed and start the day, but what promotes a writer to choose writing in a particular genre? How much does early reading/parental guidance/availability guide us?
I would say a lot to all three having thrashed over what books I have ever read in the course of this weekend and why I happened to like them. I remember going for fairly stories from the moment I could join a library. I progressed through Agatha Christy, historical romances, fantasy and sci fi. I occasionally dip into horror and have always devoured myths. It is no surprises that I now write dark romantic fantasy, science fantasy, high fantasy, urban fantasy and science fiction.
What about you? What do you like to read/write and were the early years a part of this?
I’ll read almost anything, but I write mainly fantasy and SF, and the occasional historical. I remember my mum reading me fairy stories, and then The Hobbit, when I was very little. She was a big SF and Fantasy fan – she spent her very first wage packet when she started work at 16 on a copy of “The Lord of the Rings”, which was read so often in our house that by the end it had completely disintegrated.
You are so lucky. I never had anyone read to me. I learned to read at kindy and then they bought me girl type comics. Then we moved and were near a library. Oh yes! Didn’t get LOTRS until uni and now it is very fragile from so many reads.
Yeah, like you, no one read to me. I just noticed my mom and dad were reading those mysterious squiggles in the papers and decided I HAD to know what the meant. Went for the fairy stories from the get-go. Never looked back. I mean, I’ve read contemporary and everything else inbetween, but spec fic is my true love.
Snap, Rhonda. Fairytales just rock. It must have been seeing our parents read that got us hooked on wanting to know what was so fascinating. I guess the wonder of these special worlds influenced our own writing preferences.