Travel Bug! #MFRW #Authors #7

This week’s topic is a good one on this gloomy, misty day in Indiana.  Why?

Because it makes me want to seek warmer weather!

What’s on my bucket list?

1)  Travel!

-Disney World/Universal Studios:  I’ve never been to U.S., though I think the only rides I’d enjoy would be in kiddie land….and the last time I was at WDW, my youngest was three months old!  (He’ll be 14 in two weeks)

-France

-Italy

-Greece

-Colorado

-Ottowa:  We were there at Christmas, and SO COLD!  I would love to go back in the summer, when it’s warmer:)

2)  Hit the best-seller list

3)  Attend Wild Wicked Weekend, Lori Foster’s, or any other fabulous reader event

4)  Be able to afford to be an attending author at Weekend With The Authors, hosted by my former SCP owner and fellow author Sandy Sullivan:)

5)  Be able to attend the RT convention as an author, not just go to the book signing (when it’s near my area!)

Travel, books, and meeting readers….what could be better?

To see what other authors desire to do, click here:)

See you next week!

 

 

 

Tea Party #MFRW #Authors #6

If I could choose any author, living or dead, it would have to be (in no particular order):

-Lavryl Spencer, so I could thank her for inspiring and timeless stories

-Louisa May Alcott:  I checked out her biography from my 4th-5th-6th grade library so many times, I think my name was the only one on both sides of the card.  Plus, she gave us Little Women, Little Men, Jo’s Boys, Eight Cousins, and my other fave, An Old Fashioned Girl.

-Anny Cook:  I ‘met’ Anny through her blog back in 2007, when I began exploring the e-book concept, trying to wrap my head around this new concept.  She, along with other EC authors, encouraged me to change my writing style, and bump my heat level up a bit.  After writing Teacher’s Pet, I shared a few snippets, and Anny was always there with an encouraging word.

-Cindy Spencer Pape:  She introduced me to dragons, fairies, and steam punk:)  I had the chance to meet her in 2012, at RT Chicago, but spent a little too much time at Bronwyn Green’s table, and Cindy had to get upstairs to a panel.  She and I became grandparents around the same time, and since I own nearly all of her books also, I think we’d get along quite well.

-Judy Blume:  I was introduced to her stories in either the 6th or 7th grade, and was immediately hooked!

-Rosamund Du Jardin and Anne Emery:  Probably the 1st series books I read, intrigued by characters who went from HS to college, and their love lives.

-Laura Ingalls Wilder:  After devouring her books from 2nd or 3rd grade on, and being a lover of the Little House TV show, I decided to do something similar, and Arbor U was born.  I wanted to be the ‘LIW of the 80’s’, ha ha….

-Helen Wells and Carolyn Keene:  I loved all the Cherry Ames, Vicki Barr, and Dana Girls mysteries, as well as Nancy Drew.

-Amy Sherman-Palladino:  I love many of the TV shows she’s written:  Gilmore Girls, Bunheads, and more recently, The Marvelous Mrs. Maizel.

-George Lucas:  Want to thank him for writing Star Wars.

-Gene Roddenberry:  Likewise, for creating Star Trek.

-William Shakespeare:  Honestly, who doesn’t want to know what REALLY went on in Elizabeth 1’s court????

-Shaun Cassidy:  The only TV show he’s written that I loved was Roar, starring a very young Heath Ledger.  I’d love to pair him with Amy, so he could have a hit show!  Besides, he was also my 1st music crush, so hey, songwriting counts, right?

There’s probably several others I’ve left out, but these are the ones who immediately came to mind.  I’ve met Kelly Kirch, Bronwyn Green, Brynn Paulin, Jean Joachim, Sandy Sullivan, and other former SCP authors, so they would be invited to the party also.  I might even invite a certain author from the other side of the world who was an early mentor, but somehow over the course of two or three years, I found her to be quite toxic.  I might tell her the wrong time to show up, and blame it on the time change if she shows up an hour before it’s over.

How about you?  Are there any authors you’d like to meet?  Am I on the list?  (Just kidding!)

Curious as to whom other authors want to meet?  

“I’d Like To Thank…” #MFRW #Authors #5

Which book has influenced my life the most?  That’s a tough one.

Do I credit Disney Read-a-long records, which read the story to me until I could read it myself, or Spaghetti Eddie, which, according to my mom, was the first book I read on my own?  (I also checked it out of the library so much, my name alone filled one side of the check-out card!)

Fun With Dick And Jane?

The biography of Harriet Beecher Stowe, in which I admired the day the muse hit her with a vengeance, and she wrote night and day until she finished Uncle Tom’s Cabin?

Little Women, which had me longing to play the piano like Beth, travel and marry rich like Amy, fall in love like Meg, or be a writer like Jo?

Judy Blume’s Deenie, Lavryle Spencer’s Separate Beds and The Hellion, which told stories more relevant to timeless issues?

The Bible, which I think I read MOST of in high school?  (I’m sorry; the book of Chronicles and a few other books gets reeeeeaaaaallly boring and tedious after a while!)  My faith is important to me.  Yes, Kenzie needs to go to confession, lol….if I was Catholic!

Or Jean M. Aul’s Valley of the Horses, which explained nearly everything about what to expect in the bedroom, much like Blume’s Forever?

The biography of Jane Addams, which inspired me to pursue a Social Work degree?

The above books inspired me to start writing in the first place, first with my own fairy tales, then branching out into a YA series, much like the First Love series from Silhouette.

But then I heard about Ellora’s Cave, and read a story by Mary Winters about a woman who fell in love with a merman.  Other EC authors whose books I read, and decided to spice up my own bedroom scenes, instead of keeping it more to the imagination.

So thank you Mary, Anny Cook, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, and several more too numerous to mention here.

What book (or author) would you say has influenced YOUR life the most?

Want to read more?  Keep following the blog hop!

See you next week!