Since I've been writing for as long as I can remember, or at least since I was around fifteen years old, I often look to the inspirational factors that keep me going. It wasn't like I looked around and said that I'd write about specific events in my life, that didn't seem like fun or of any interest to anyone else. Mostly what inspired me were the works of other authors. The very first book I remember was called Ghosts, Ghosts, Ghosts and it was a collection of, obviously, ghost stories.
The books that really caught my imagination were science fiction and fantasy tales. I read everything I could get my hands on, the school library had a very small section, though. In any case one of the books I remembered occasionally was Andre Norton's Witchworld. I read all of her books that I could get my hands on, they were fun. But it was her Witchworld series that moved me to start writing.
I don't really know why I began writing, except that I knew that reading was fun but it always came to an end sooner or later... but I wanted it to continue. The only way that a story could continue was to take charge of it, to make the heros, heroines and antagonists your puppets in the unfenced depths of your mind.
Andre Norton's stories were all of that to me, tales that ended too soon.
When I decided to try my hand at blogging I thought that digging up some of the books of the past, my past, would be an interesting topic. So I dug out my copy of Witchworld and re-read it. There is a difference between how I remember the story and how it is in the book, which I thought was neat and revealed again how poor my memory of specifics can be.
I'd forgotten that it was arranged as short stories that were connected to make the entirety, but as soon as I started reading I remembered the story, again not with every little detail but I would see the situation developing and say 'ah ha, I remember this,' or 'this is gonna happen next,' and it would. It was fun.
More than being fun though I realized that some of the elements she used in her stories are still used today, that's not unusual, I suppose, but it is interesting.
I'm reading more of the Witchworld stories and I hope to give more details and come to an opinion of whether these tales are dated or if they compete with current fantasy literature. I've always valued them and I hope others might take a chance and look into the past for some good reads.
I've never really kept up with authors, except to read their books or maybe find out what they were writing next. Today it's easier when most writers have websites or something and you can simply access them to find out personal details if you want. I was only interested in reading their stories... for the most part.
One item I seem to remember (hope I remember correctly) is that Andre Norton had to publish under a male pseudonym Andrew North, since women couldn't break into writing back in those days. Fortunately, she could use her own name and inspire others, male and female, as time passed. I appreciate that she partnered with other writers and opened the galaxy to witches, star traders and aliens, leaving a trail of ink for us later explorers.
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