What’s the most relaxing way to spend a couple of hours?  For this mama, it’s reading a good book. 

I don’t just like to read, I LOVE to read.  I truly believe I was born to be a reader first and foremost.  I devoured books.   One of my favorite childhood memories is of going to the library every Friday with my mom and wandering through the floor to ceiling bookshelves looking for that perfect story to get lost in.  That smell!  It might have been nothing more than decaying paper, but to me it was the smell of adventure and excitement.    I’d go home with an armload of books and hurry to my bedroom to flop in the middle of my bed and dive into one of those exciting worlds.

One of the downsides to being a writer is that I don’t get to read as much as I’d like to.  I don’t read anything that’s similar to what I write because I don’t want my vision to be clouded by someone else’s story.  And I’m usually on deadline, so I often don’t have as much time to read as I’d like.  But I do often get asked what I’m reading now or what’s my favorite book or my favorite author or, even more often, what was the first romance I ever read or what books influenced me to write romance.

Those are horrible questions for a Reader turned writer.  One book?  They’d ask me to pick out ONE book??? 

Over time I’ve gradually come to realize that there was no ONE BOOK that influenced what I wanted to write.  It was the multitude of books I read over the years  – all the times I’d turned that final page and wondered what the heck that author was smoking to have ended the story like that.  Or made her heroine do something as stupid as that.  Or thought that any woman could find a hero who acted like that the least bit attractive.

It took me a while, but I finally realized it was that which made me want to write.  I wanted a say in what those characters were going to do… I wanted them to conform to MY fantasy of their situation.

And while I still can’t name my current favorite book  [because there are too many], I find that there are stories I read – no, absorbed! – through the years that I still think about.   So, while I can’t name ONE book or author that influenced me, I CAN share some that stuck with me.

Nancy Drew.  I LOVED the entire series.  I had every single book.  When I learned that Carolyn Keene ended up being a whole series of writers, I was devastated. 

Victoria Holt.  Every wonderful gothic-y moment of her romances.  I can’t name one individually, but I read them all.  She was the first author whose name I remembered and I searched the library shelves for her books every time I went to the library.  To this day, I can’t even think her name without envisioning a high cliff with a beautiful young woman standing there looking out over a crashing sea, a scary mansion in the background.  Oooo… gave myself shivers just thinking about it!

The Moon-Spinners – Mary Stewart.   I saw the Disney version of this on television.  Haley Mills and Peter McEnery.  Mmmm… my first memory of an almost romance.  I had to find the book!  Reading it was my introduction to how much better a book is than the movie made from it!  I went on to read everything I could find by Mary Stewart.

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul – Douglas Adams.  I loved this story.  I still do love it.  I found it first on audio and listened to it while I drove back and forth to work.  I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve listened to it over the years OR the number of times I was late getting into the office because I just HAD to listen until the end of the chapter.  By the way…in my imagination, Kate DOES end up with Thor and they DO have a happy ever after.  Douglas Adams simply stopped writing their story a chapter too soon.  I’m just saying…

Those are some of the books that have remained vivid memories for me for *mumble, mumble* years.  Those characters are as much a part of my life as any of the people I knew growing up.   To this day, I can “see” them as if they were real.

What about you?  What are the stories and who are the authors who’ve made characters come alive for you so that they live on in your memories?

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Melissa Mayhue is the author of the award winning Daughters of the Glen series from Pocket Books.  Book Five – A Highlander’s Destiny – is scheduled for release January 2010 with Book Six – A Highlander’s Homecoming – scheduled for February 2010.