Here are 4 authors that have inspired me on my writing journey

I’m sharing four books/authors that have inspired me on my journey to becoming an author, and they might not be what you expect.

Many authors of historical adventure/historical fiction often cite the greats when talking about their influences, Bernard Cornwell, Simon Scarrow, etc, etc (you get the picture), but those aren’t my author heroes. My first intention was to write historical fantasy, and my literary heroes are giants of that genre ( and you might realise here why I write so many series).

1. Terry Pratchett – his Discworld books, with their humour, recurring characters, and themes which are still very relevant, used to see me staying up late at night to finish them. I now listen to the audiobooks – which have luckily just been rerecorded and I adore all the versions.

   
   

2. Katharine Kerr – the Deverry series. WOW. I might have told this story before, but I will never forget the day (many years ago) when I picked up my first Deverry novel. I’ve been reading them ever since. The wonderful mix of history/myth and the intertwining ‘lives’ of the characters have always thrilled me. And, on a personal note, the way that the death of one of the main characters was handled gave me comfort when I was bereaved, many, many years ago. These things stick with us.

   
   

3. Anne McCaffrey – the PERN novels. I reread these books all the time. I’ve also read many of her other novels as well, but PERN were the ones for me. The timelines, the mixing of past and present, the DRAGONS. Just a fabulous set of novels. (These are still in a box somewhere from my recent move, and so I can’t share the images of my old covers, but the new ebook covers are delightful.)

   
   

4. Tom’s Midnight Garden – perhaps a strange one to include, but I read the book as a very young child, and I think the magic of the story, the interweaving of the narrative with past and present, certainly pushed me to seek out other novels that were very similar. At heart, I think I’ve always been intrigued by fantasy.

   
   

So yes, not many historical fiction novels there – but all of them have an element of the historical. Of course, Terry Pratchett has the humour, which I also try to incorporate into some of my stories these days.