This week Stephanie's topic for group blog Thursday is about what books we loved growing up. Personally I love this topic, because my favorite books growing up are nothing like what I read now, or even what I want to write! I never noticed it before, but really, how crazy is it that our taste in books grows as we do? I think I would enjoy going back and reading some of the books I used to, but not necessarily because I really liked the books, but because they're a part of my past! They're the reason I want to be a writer, and the reason I want to spread my own love of books to other people.
My favorite authors used to be V.C. Andrews, Christopher Pike, and R.L. Stine. *LOL!* I can't help but laugh a little bit because, what girl
didn't love these authors as a pre-teen or teen? My favorite series was The Last Vampire series, by Christopher Pike. I still have all of these in paperback. I think I might dig them out just for old time's sake. I think my obsession with vampires is the only thing that carried on from my childhood. However, I have no urge to write about them. I would slaughter my fascination with them in my attempt to create a story about them. That's no fun!
Stephanie mentioned that her favorite was
Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews, pre-ghostwriter. That series is also one of my favorites. I actually started reading post-ghostwriter, because my mom bought me a paperback while I was in the hospital. It was the first in the series called Orphans. They were separated into four small books, each of them about a different girl in an orphanage, and their experience. I began reading it and was hooked. By then, the ghostwriter for V.C. Andrews was pumping out a new novel every couple of months, so I didn't really get to backtrack to
Flowers in the Attic until I was 18 or 19, but I loved it. I still want to read the earlier Andrews' books because she was so dark in her writing. At one point, I really wanted to write novels like this, but later, I realized I wanted to keep them as my entertainment, not as my work (and source of frustration at times!). But she still remains to be one of my favorite authors.
And of course, everyone remembers the Goosebumps series, right? Right. Well, I was a little too mature for Goosebumps, despite my mom not thinking so. Ha ha. I started reading R.L. Stine's other series, directed towards teen girls, about crazy girlfriends, and ghost best friends, and haunted houses on Fear Street. I loved horror even when I was just 12, but my mom wouldn't let me read her Stephen King books. Instead, she fed my thirst by handing me the book
Sunburn by Stine's. I loved it, and still have it (I still have most of my paperbacks from middle and high school...sue me). These are the books that made me want to write, especially for teenagers whose parents don't want them to read more mature works. If my mom hadn't steered me towards these books to tide over my hunger for reading, I might never have come to writing, and even submitting my first novel to be
published!
I guess this means I should really thank these authors for getting me started on something that I haven't been able to stop. You've inspired me and filled my mind with the craziest situations, but that were so
real I could believe them. And now, I'm trying to create the same visuals for teenagers (and adults, hopefully) and hope that I can only be compared to you later in my career. Thank you!
11 ghetto sass:
Absolutely adored R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike. The stories were Sooo sooo good!!!
Oooooo I remember R.L. Stine. Good stuff :]
Maybe I shouldn't tell you this...in case you don't know it already! In the 90s I tested twice to write for Sweet Valley High. It was a blast...but I wasn't accepted. During that same time I got information from that same book packager (now out of business) to write Goosebumps and Fear Streets. I never did it because I became sidetracked but R.L. Stine basically just wrote outlines for a lot of those...authors making around $2,000 a book were doing the writing. I'm sure he wrote a lot of them early on but after a while it just became too daunting.
Wow Steph! lol! I didn't know that! I would guess that it would become daunting, though. I mean, there must have been like, a thousand books put out by him then. It seemed like there was a new one every couples weeks!
And I used to read Sweet Valley High, too. ;) hehe. Even though I was nowhere near high school then. That woulda been cool to be a part of, but now, I don't know if I would want that on my resume!!
Oh, I loved Runaways! And I love the song playing on your blog right now (as usual).
Ah...the good old days. I actually did read Stephen King because my parents didn't censor what I read. Sadly, that was all I read. My daughter, who is 14, is already well-read in YA. If I never do anything else right in this life, at least I've sparked a love of reading in my children:D
Yes, the good old days. That's exactly what I think, too. I mean, it was so easy to pick one book out. I just had to pick out the next in the series I was reading! Now I have to browse and browse and browse...and rarely do I actually come to a definite answer. lol.
LOL i read a lot of R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike too. ahhh the good old days ^^
R.L. Stine, wow! I have ALL of his Goosebumps books; I loved them. As for V.C. Andrews? I started to read those novels when I was in junior high. They are pretty much the same story over and over, but they are interesting, definitely. I still vividly remember the "Flowers in the Attic" series, as well as "My Sweet Audrina."
I read Runaways and I was like the hugest fan of R.L. Stine. I had to sneak and read them though because my mom did not want me too. Christopher Pike was cool too.
I loved horror/suspense books in general, but my mom was not okay with me reading adult books. She was afraid it would put thoughts into my head lol. But I started sneaking adult suspense when I was 14, or so, and she just let it go. I'm glad, too. Otherwise I might never have picked up some of the books I did later in life.
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