Who are some of your favorite authors or books?
The first science fiction or fantasy book that really captivated me was David Gemmel's The King Beyond the Gate. It was this epic adventure story told with grit, where ideals had to strive beside the ugly side of human nature. It had this ragtag group of people coming together around a common purpose not by some divine prophecy, but because of a combination of history, personal choices, and dumb luck. It was high fantasy, but without the vanilla themes or lazy storytelling you sometimes expect. That's the kind of richness which draws me to a lot of amazing authors and books.
This is a sampling of some of my favorite picks for anyone who wants to read great fantasy or science fiction:
C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner series
Guy Gavriel Kay's books
Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea trilogy
Impulse by Steven Gould
Neanderthal by John Darnton
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
Camouflage by Joe Haldeman
What inspires you to get out of bed each day?
Not knowing what in the real world is going to inspire the next idea for a story so that I can get at some truth that, just maybe, people in the real world don't want to acknowledge. I think the best authors can be inspired by the smallest things. Maybe a simple idea snowballs into something incredible.
J.R.R. Tolkien began The Hobbit with a few scribbles at his teaching desk, never knowing what it would become. I guess that's what inspires me. Knowing that each day I write something new, there's no telling where it might end up or who's life might be touched by it.
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