I think it’s only natural that for someone to want to write fiction they must enjoy reading it. From an early age my parents instilled in me the love of reading. Evenings after dinner were spent in the family room, each of us in our own little corner doing our own thing. The television was on to some movie or something Dad wanted to watch, but it was mostly just background noise. 

Dad would sit in his chair or on his corner of the couch (depend on the year I’m imagining), reading Louis L’amour westerns, Mac Bolan adventure novels, post apocalyptic journeys like Endworld and Blade novels by David Robbins, or Deathlands by James Axler. 

Mom would sit in similar fashion reading her own versions of adventures. Daniel Steele was a favorite, but so were John Grisham, Nora Roberts, Dean Koontz, and Sue Grafton. 

My brother and I would naturally pick up these books in turn and read them ourselves. One of the best lines from my mother when it came to what we could read was the simple statement: “If you think you can understand it, read it.” She never censored our reading options, and she never questioned our choices. Sometimes my brother and I scared our parents with our reactions to some of the novels, but that’s only because we began to read things they didn’t. Stephen King was one of the loves my brother and I shared that our parents did not. So when we laughed at passages from a horror novel, they gave us weird looks.

Those early years growing up, learning in school, and at home, books were the ultimate escape. I loved movies and video games and playing outside as much as any child of the 80s, but books were where I always returned.

It is this love of reading that ultimately inspired me to write my own stories. I’ll admit, as an author, I’m late to the party compared to some writers. However, as a fan and writer of fiction, I started as early as I could with encouragement from my English instructors and librarians. 

I wrote stories about kids my age doing amazing things. I wrote horror stories that I thought were absolutely frightening. I wrote stories about adults being badass like the action heroes from the movies. I wrote stories about my classmates (and boy did that turn out to be a bad idea). In the end, my junior high and high school writing career was all over the place, and none of what I wrote should ever see the light of day. The stories were hand written, mostly during downtime in classes or after school. 

Most importantly, I was having fun. The fun of reading turned into the fun of writing, and that was really what I wanted more than anything else. I wanted to have fun and keep the stories going. That is what I learned from my first forays into writing, as instilled in me by my mother and father. Reading can be educational, and reading can be fun. A story that manages to combine the two is even more amazing (I’m hinting at you, Michael Crichton who wrote the ultimate dinosaur novel). 

It is these books and stories and authors that have inspired me to try my hand at this writing thing. It’s taken me nearly twenty years to get good enough to start sending my own works out and, thankfully, see them get published. I can only hope that there are readers out there who find my stories and enjoy them as I intended. I fully recognize that once a story, or a character, or a concept is out in the world it is as much a part of the fans as it is the writer. I think that’s an awesome relationship to have between reader and writer. 

So to anyone who has found anything I’ve written enjoyable, please keep it, share it, and try your hand at it yourself if you’re interested. There will never be enough stories in the world.