Thanksgiving for Books

So Thanksgiving is fast approaching, and that’s not a thing here in Australia, but I’m not going to let that stop me. With the imminent release of my new horror novel, DEVOURING DARK, Cassandra asked me if I could talk about the books I’ve loved and been inspired by, which may have had some influence on my own work. Of course, everything I’ve ever read has had an impact of some kind, some books more than others, naturally. So in the spirit of Thanksgiving, here are just a few books I’m thankful for and why, in a vaguely chronological order as I discovered them.

Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and Danny The Champion Of The World by Roald Dahl.

I’ve grown up loving Dahl, but these two books, in particular, introduced me to the magic of whimsy and the fantastical, the nature of an everyday hero, and the power of being a decent person. They weren’t devoid of badness, but they framed it well. I’ve recently read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with my nearly 5yo son and watching him enjoy a book I’ve loved my whole life was a rare and wonderful pleasure.

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin. I can’t be sure, but I think this was the first adult fantasy story that really moved me and made me see the power of stories beyond simple entertainment. Sure there were all kinds of morals and lessons in the stuff I’d read before, but this book opened my eyes to dark and grown-up issues. In many ways, such a simple premise, but so masterfully delivered, and thick with layers of meaning. And the mesmerizing prose! In this, I saw the sheer beauty of words.

The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey. This was an omnibus edition of McCaffrey’s first three Pern books – Dragonflight (1968), Dragonquest (1970), and The White Dragon (1978) – and I think it was my first experience of dragons in fiction beyond the usual nods in mythology and kids books like Puff The Magic Dragon. In these stories, dragons were majestic and powerful and capricious and amazing, and people rode them! I fell in love with dragons first of all with these stories and that love persists. One day I’ll write my own dragon novel.

Kiss, Kiss and Switch Bitch by Roald Dahl. You’ll recall from the mentions above that I was aware of and a fan of Roald Dahl from a young age. When I saw these two books on my parents’ shelves, I was intrigued. When I read them, I was forever changed. Roald Dahl’s short stories are very much for adults and very much for the bending of brains. These books fired in me a love of short stories showed me the power of the form, and I’ve loved them ever since.

At The Mountains Of Madness and other novels of terror by H. P. Lovecraft. HPL was a horrible person, a truly ugly racist, and yet his fiction has had an impact on me and my work that I can’t deny. This book was the first of his I read and I subsequently consumed everything by him I could find. I didn’t know at the time what a wholly despicable person he was, but his influence on weird fiction globally can’t be understated. While most have transcended what he began, the seeds were planted here. My love of the cosmic and the weird, which persists in so much of my work to this day, started when I read this book.

The Great And Secret Show and The Books Of Blood by Clive Barker. Barker has been an influence on my writing more than any other single author, of that I am in no doubt. It’s possible that The Great And Secret Show is my favorite novel of all time, though that’s a hell of a thing to claim and I may deny it at any time. The Books Of Blood further cemented my love of short stories and absolutely widened my view of horror and what it could be. The way Barker mixes horror, fantasy, and real life is something I aspire to with everything I write.

The Chronicles of Morgaine by C J Cherryh. This is a massive fantasy saga that I think deserves way more recognition than it seems to have. It’s a seamless blend of SF and fantasy, the main character of Morgaine is amazing, the writing is gorgeous, and the story is powerful and had me enraptured. This is probably the series that really cemented my love of epic fantasy and although my work is contemporary in setting, these sprawling fantasies with not only the world but many worlds in peril have certainly influenced my books.

It by Stephen King. I am a huge fan of King, though it pains me how often a brilliant book of his is marred by a weak ending. This is a prime example of that, and yet It absolutely transported me and was the first book that genuinely scared me. I had to put it down on several occasions and have a few days off. One scene, in particular, had me put the book in a cupboard for a week and sleep with the lights on every night. And yet I was inexorably drawn back to it, a moth to a flame because I had to know what happened. King’s ability with character and setting is unrivaled.

Lastly, I’m going to mention the Elric books by Michael Moorcock, particularly Elric of Melnibone, Sailor on the Seas of Fate, and Stormbringer. These books were the highest fantasy, but they were also epic, and dark, and grim, and weird, and I think they had a bigger influence on me than I ever realized at the time. I recently reread the entire saga, just to see if it holds up. It certainly does, and I realized then how much it had impacted my young mind and bled into my work now.

So that’s just a snapshot of books I’m thankful for. There are dozens more, hundreds probably, but when I sat down to write, these are the ones that sprang to mind. If there are any here that you haven’t read, I highly recommend you find them and rectify that.