Reading and Writing

I love reading. I read plenty of books (that's for sure). I guess my interest to write started when I felt awed, reading many interesting books.

It took years before I realized what I wanted to write. At first, I wrote silly, childish poems. Then stories. Since I love Enid Blyton's works, I often wrote fanfiction about Famous Five. I imitated Blyton's style a bit, but gradually I moved on, finding other great authors to be admired. Agatha Christie. Paula Danziger. Beatrix Potter. Margaret Weiss. Tracy Hickman. Raymond E. Feist. Sylvia Plath. Jhumpa Lahiri. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. Amy Tan. Jerry Seinfeld. Dave Barry. Gavin deBecker. Paul Reiser. Paul Jennings. Melina Marchetta. Meg Cabot. Marjan Satrapi. Mitsuru Adachi. Yamato Waki. Watase Yuu. Dr. Seuss. Cicely Mary Barker. Philip Pullman. Eva Ibbotson. Roald Dahl. J.K. Rowling. Tolkien. Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Oh, so many more!

I love reading about fantasy, mistery, sometimes horror or even, romance. I once felt that one day, I'd write stories like these. Now, I realize, it's okay to try writing new genre once in a while, but I have to know my capabilities, likes and dislikes. Why insist in writing mistery, when I don't have any messages to convey to the readers? Why persist in writing horror or thriller, when I can't write in a style that would make the readers enjoy reading my book?

I sometimes enjoy reading romance. However, since basically I'm not a romantic, I often find it hard to create romantic scenes in my books. (Many times I end up in ruining the romance!)

To me, reading and writing are almost effortless. I guess I won't be a writer if I didn't like to read. For that, I thank my parents who support my interest in reading.