I love reading as if each discovery is brand new...because it is. Though it did take me a while to really learn that.
Cycle One
Children's books (this month's theme) and I have a curious relationship I might have mentioned before. Early on I got stuck at re-reading, specifically The Little Engine That Could and Winnie-the-Pooh. I mean really stuck. I didn't read anything else until third grade.
My life-changing teacher basically ripped them out of my hands and fed me action-adventure.
By fifth grade I'd read my way through most of London, Melville, and Conrad. During this period I also learned an immense amount about: whaling, polar exploration, and world land speed records. By seventh I'd chewed large holes in Ludlum, le Carré, Follett, and Grady (Six Days of the Condor). From there I ravaged the library's shelves for tales of sailing from Mutiny On the Bounty (all three books and Bligh's own journals—fascinating by the way) to solo circumnavigations. And through all of this I was a child of the Space Age, so I consumed: Asimov, Blish, Bradbury, Clark, Haldeman, Herbert, Heinlein, and so many others. By the time I hit college I'd discovered Ayn Rand, Herman Hesse, James Clavell...
Okay, let's just say that I read a lot and that it wasn't your typical childhood catalog.
Cycle Two
I was in my late 30s when I finally found a family of my own. This one came with a pre-packaged six-year-old. As a consequence, it was during my late 30s and early 40s that I discovered "children's" books. Goodnight Moon, Dr. Seuss, The Magic School Bus, The Magic Tree House, and Half Magic were only a tiny part of where nightly story time lead me—before Harry Potter crashed landed and blew everyone else away.
Funny side story. My kid was of an age that by the time book 3 came along she'd progressed from being read to, through reading to us, to finally reading on her own (she's grown and gone, but I still miss reading to her each night). Shortly before the release of book #7, she was horrified to learn that I hadn't read any of Harry's tales since she'd read book #2 to us...several times.
Moments later, books 3-6 were tossed over my shoulder and into my lap—literally. Whatever novel I was reading went skittering across the floor seeking cover. The books had physically crash landed into my reading list. I was given until the book #7 launch the next week to catch up. I did... Barely.
Present Cycle
As I mentioned I've become fascinated by the cycles in my reading. There are also cycles in the books I want to write that I'll have to explore more deeply at some other time.
I've often said that I'm a science fiction author who accidentally sold a romance novel. There is no question that The Night Is Mine and the subsequent 30ish books and 50ish stories related to The Night Stalkers launched my career as a military romantic suspense writer.
But that's not what I actually wrote. What I wrote as an action-adventure techno-thriller...that sold to a romance editor. She asked me to redraft the book for her romance line and I did. I don't regret it for a single second. I love writing romance.
But my writer's voice, my reviews, and even my sales have led me back around to the action-adventure tales that Mrs. Kaye put in my hands so many years ago.
It's like I've found my way back to my first love as a reading child and finally taken ownership of who I am, by rediscovering who I was. (I'll try not to revert all the way back to The Little Engine That Could, but I make no promises.)
Launched Yesterday
Just yesterday I launched my 4th novel (the last of the Pre-flight Quartet) in the critically acclaimed Miranda Chase series. It's the same series that placed me on the USA Today Bestseller list and enabled Drone to reach #1 at Amazon in thrillers and action-adventure.
Miranda Chase, the heroine you least expected.
Fighting the battles no one else could win.
An AC-130J “Ghostrider”—the
latest variant of America’s most lethal aerial gunship—goes down hard in the
Colorado Rockies. Except the data doesn’t match the airframe.
Air-crash genius, and high-functioning
autistic, Miranda Chase leads her NTSB team in to investigate. But what they
uncover reveals a far greater threat—sabotage.
If she can’t solve the crash
in time, a new type of war will erupt. One far too close to home which threatens
to shatter her team.
Your Cycle
I'd love to hear any stories of what perhaps led you back to where you began reading.
USA
Today and Amazon #1 Bestseller M. L. "Matt" Buchman has 60+ action-adventure
thriller and military romance novels, 100 short stories, and lotsa audiobooks. PW
says: “Tom Clancy fans open to a strong female lead will clamor for more.”
Booklist declared: “3X Top 10 of the Year.”
A
project manager with a geophysics degree, he’s designed and built houses, flown
and jumped out of planes, solo-sailed a 50’ sailboat, and bicycled solo around
the world…and he quilts. More at: www.mlbuchman.com.
5 comments:
Great post! I got to return to my childhood reading loves through my daughter. She is an elementary school teacher, and I've had the pleasure of sharing many of my favorite kids' books with her classes.
I read a lot of fairy tales in elementary school, as well as SciFi tales, historical fiction, mysteries, and non-fiction (about animals, kids in other countries/cultures, biographies of historical figures.) I loved Dr. Seuss books (the word play; the pictures always seemed a little creepy.) I liked poetry and nursery rhymes. Didn't discover Winnie-the-Pooh until high school, when I fell in love with the books. Go figure!
I shared my favorite books in all the genres by reading to each of my three kids every night until they were around ten years old. I also read them the Winnie-the-Pooh books. And we discovered Bunnicula, Olga Da Polga and other stories together.
the adults in my life (grandparents, aunts, parents) picked out what to read to me as a child. I loved the E.E. Milne books as well as Winnie the Pooh, The Jungle Book, etc. I was the only grandchild living in Portland during WWII so was doted upon by everyone in my ambit. Imagine my surprise just before my 3rd birthday, when my brother was born! And learning to share was a major adjustment. I loved the library summer reading program and while I don't really remember the books I read, I do remember the clown's suit getting filled up with round stickers (one for each book I read). I don't remember getting 1st prize but I do remember being one of the top readers. However, My Cycle runs more to reading/not reading/reading/not reading. Since the 1980's I can see shifts in my reading pattern. I no longer read psychological thrillers much less thrillers; also do not read contemporary romantic suspense. I can tolerate suspense if it is in a setting prior to 1900. And when I say "suspense" it is that something bad may/could/can happen to the people in the story...not a will he/will she commit suspense that is a common thread in romance. My other reading cycle is fiction/non-fiction.
My reading is cyclic too...I think. Yeah, it is. Free time is so scarce in my life right now. It's not just the writing career. Today we put up basil pesto, canned 10 jars of strawberry jam, and I have bagel dough rising. And I always have a couple of non-fics going for my business, so pleasure reading is rare... because my eyes are kinda burned by the end of the day. So I watch a lot of movies. Then something will hook me and I'll plunge through a stack of novels even in lieu of sleep.
These days, it has to be a heck of a romance to catch my attention (like a new Susan Wiggs). Last year as I was researching thrillers, I plunged through a block of those. Whereas I just picked up Pride and Prejudice again this morning. I follow the emotion I'm looking for at that momentary gap between non-fic and writing. That momentary choice will typically then define my next plunge. The last round was about a half dozen hard SF over the winter. We'll see what Jane does to me. I may be just compulsive enough to reread the whole series. :)
What an interesting way to approach favorite books. I too went through cycles though not as many as you. As I child I read adventure and independence books like Pippi Longstocking.
As a teen I read my mother's Harlequin's. Her favorites were what is now called Gothic Romance. Down and out woman becomes governess for rich man in castle or other large house with a not-so-benevolent past (ghosts, evil, mind manipulation, etc.) The scary parts were just scary enough to keep me turning the pages but not so scary I would have nightmares. In fact the only lead in a play I had in High School was Martha Leigh in The Mistress of Mellyn. Probably one of the first Victoria Holt novels I ever read.
As an adult it's always been primarily SF until my 50's when I was re-introduced to romance by Dean & Kris. Still SF is my fave--the world of ideas and the future--and if it has romance in it all the better.
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