On Writing : Who is your favorite author and why? by Kat Spencer

I have to find a favorite author, Kat Spencer, and I need to read more novels. I've mainly read screenwriting books, writing books, and film industry books over the years.

John Grisham and Clive Cussler. Great influences on my writing style.

I like the books by Dean Koontz.

Mine’s gotta be Haruki Murakami. I love his surrealism and often outlandish plots, the man can write things that stay with you years after you finish reading.

Other than him it would have to be Paulo Coelho, Judy Blume, and JK Rowling.

Shakespeare, Veronica Roth, Michael Connelly, and Dean Koontz. I love their characters and abilities to keep the pages turning.

I love John Grisham as well Jeff E. Gregory. I don't think I've ever read Clive Cussler, though.

Where to start? I think its easier to say if I'm still reading the same author after their sixth novel, they are probably one of my favourites. E.g. Connie Suttle 32 titles, Dannika Dark 13 titles, Phoebe Matthews 12 titles. etc

I rarely read past the first two pages these days if they don't pull me in. Life, as they say, is far too short...

I have SO many favorite authors that I can't even list them all. I'm an avid reader and add new authors to my favorites all the time. (Thank goodness for the Kindle being able to store thousands of books!)

But I do often mention Sarah Woodbury as a favorite. Sarah has several series set in ancient Wales. A couple are mystery, one is a King Arthur type, but my absolute favorite is After Cilmeri, which is time travel to ancient Wales. It's a comfort read series, which I've reread many times.

When I first read the series there were about 6 books. Now I think it's 17. I was so impressed that I looked up the author and emailed her. At the time, I was acquainted or knew of most of the big indie authors and she wasn't one of them. In my email, I asked her if she belonged to the writers' organization Novelists Inc (NINC) which puts on fabulous conferences every year. Sarah lives in a relatively small town in Oregon and didn't really know many authors. I encouraged her to join NINC and attend the conference so she could become plugged into the author community and learn more about the publishing industry.

She did. But by then the hotel was sold out. I told her she could share my room, and she agreed. From there, we became great friends, and we still share a suite at the conference every year. I don't know how many years it's been. 13, maybe.

Sarah has extensively studied historical Wales, spent a lot of time there, and even learned the language. In one of her mystery series books, a character that I'd come to love was killed in battle, and I actually cried! I called her up and said, "Sarah, you killed NAME! I'm so sad, I'm crying." She said, "I know, I did too when I wrote that scene. But I had to. In reality, he really was killed in that battle."

Sigh, the time travel series is much easier on my heart, because Sarah is able to manipulate real history.

Carol M. Salter, I'm the same way. A couple of pages. There are SO many good books now that I don't have to continue reading to see if a book will develop into a good one.

Hunter S. Thompson.

I learned to give the explanation because if I just leave it at that, then people think I'm a crackhead.

Well, I discovered him when I used to be one, a druggie. But what he does and what he taught me to do is something that pretty much saved my life.

He always partied too hard, took it too far, but he ended his self-destruction sessions by putting pen to paper. It was a way to explain himself, why he lost it and did what he did.

When the world sees that message, physically, he looks like a maniac. Just some addict who you shouldn't listen to or be around.

But when it's on paper, his crazy thoughts made sense and had many, many real messages. He became human on paper and was no longer incoherent and awkward.

I was wild, and I have a mental disorder. I blurt things out; it's almost out of my control and what comes out of my mouth sometimes isn't what I intended. Hunter was the first person that introduced that people like me--who feel they're misunderstood for how they've lived life--can start to be understood better if they put what they're experiencing on paper in an intellectual way.

I walked away from real drugs as a kid, but I kept the depression writing. I can honestly say if I didn't see Fear & Loathing and feel so drawn to journaling, I not only wouldn't be a writer, but I probably wouldn't be alive.

So dark and crazy if you read his stories, but I appreciate him.

He introduced me to a way to express myself, one where the right message gets across.

...

Totally do miss gonzo journalism, though, to be honest. It was a lot easier to sell my stories when I was young, wild, and explosive lol People love crazy! It is what it is.

I have a lot, it depends on the genre. But some top favs are R.F. Kuang, Grady Hendrix, Sarah J. Maas, Darren Shan, and Jeaniene Frost.