If there's anything that makes me happy it's when people say to other authors that a certain story made them want to get into writing. Now that hasn't happened to me specifically yet but I will say a few people that made me want to start writing TG material(I had dabbled in other genre's before joining BC)
Torey: Her Emerging from the Cocoon, and Forever Claire stories really got me wanting to write in this area.
TGsine: Summer Girl was one of the first stories I ever read on BC and it actually played a part in me writing my story Broken Phoenix.
There's a few other stories that got me wanting to write that I can't remember the author to:
Stephanie's Deal: Although unfinished, this story really puts together a good read.
Orphan: An early BC classic that I only got around to reading a few weeks ago, doesn't get the recognition it should because it was overshadowed from what I could tell.
How Life Can Change: Another story that I would've normally strayed away from due to the cover art for it but ended up reading it and was pleasantly surprised by how the story came out. Just goes to show you, "Don't judge a book by its cover."
What stories/Authors gave you inspiration for writing?
Comments
That's an easy one for me.
The author & story that got me to really want to write TG stories was Bek D. Corbin's Lady Lightning serial. I loved that story and still occasionally go back and re-read it.
~XI
Jennifer Richardson
Becoming a Team Player and of course my very first Maalox moment with Melanie Brown's The Reluctant Girlfriend
Love, Andrea Lena
in terms of writing in general
Asimov, Bradbury, Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis.
In terms of TG fiction? Too many to even count.
Inspiring Authors?
I can't really think of authors who inspired me to write. Although starting as young as seven or eight, I attempted what I realize now is Oz fanfiction. I read a lot during my misspent youth (say, tween years); writing a novel seemed utterly overwhelming to me. Fantasies inspired me to write, as well as certain memories. Then there was my plunge in the less respectable sections of USENET, and also read (and even purchased) some less-respectable books.
-- Daphne Xu
Eleanor Cameron
When I was about eight years old, I read a book on our 3rd grade class bookshelf called "Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet". I loved the book, and after reading it, I discovered that it was the second one in a series. I asked at the school if anyone had the book there but they said they hadn't.
Mom said that the next time we were downtown, we could stop at the city library to see if they had it. I think I imagined instead of one shelf of books, the city library might have ten or so shelves. Later we lived in a town where the city library really was about that big, wedged in behind the city clerk's desk in City Hall.
But the Brawley Public Library turned out to be a building as large as a church with four rooms, each bigger than my classroom at school and each filled with books and another room full of magazines. I just stood at the entrance and stared around. I had never seen so many books in one place.
Mom was paying our water bill across the garden from the Library so I had gone in by myself. The librarian, Mrs. Washington, saw me standing there and asked if she could help me.
I said, "I'm looking for a book."
She smiled and said they had thousands of books. "Is it a particular book you're looking for?"
I said, "Yes, it's called A Visitor to the Mushroom Planet."
"Do you know who the author was?"
"Author?" I asked.
"Who wrote the book?"
I stared at her. Honestly, until she asked me the question it had never occurred to me that people had to write the books I loved to read so much.
I turned around and looked at all the books again. "Someone wrote all these books?"
She laughed and said, "Lots of different people. But that's how we find books here, by the name of the author."
I didn't know the author's name. So Mrs. Washington (who we four years later would end up living next door to, which is why I remember her name), the librarian, showed me the wonders of the card catalog with drawers of cards with the names of authors and titles and subjects. She found the book, even though I had the title wrong, and took me to the shelf and there it was: The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron!
I had to get Mom to come in and sign for me to have a library card and I checked out the book and another one that looked interesting, one of the Mother West Wind books by Thornton Burgess. While Mom was signing the paper for my card, I wandered around the rooms and looked at books. So many books. And someone had to write them.
I decided right then that being a writer had to be the best job in the world and that would be what I would do in my life.
Two years later, I wrote my first story and shared it at lunch time with my friends as a serial, one page a day. The Caves of Time was about a group of school kids that discovered a cave system that opened up into various historical time periods. And all the characters were named after my classmates. :)
I've been writing ever since.
Thanks, Mrs. Washington and thank you Eleanor Cameron. And you too, Mr. Burgess, who showed me you could write a lot of books! He had almost two whole shelves in the library!
I don't have that many yet.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
personal
I love when you share yourself like this comment.
I stared at her. Honestly, until she asked me the question it had never occurred to me that people had to write the books I loved to read so much.
I turned around and looked at all the books again. "Someone wrote all these books?"
Thank you
Love, Andrea Lena
Burgess Books
Oh, my! There was a time when I was hooked on the Burgess books, beginning with "Old Mother West Wind". There are still a few books I haven't read, but which occasionally occur to me to attempt to find and read. Old Mother West Wind was a kinder, gentler (lower ranked) "Old Mother Nature" in those books.
-- Daphne Xu
My Grandmother...
...had a few of the Forest Tales around when I was a kid, presumably from my dad's or his older brother's childhood: Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel, Sammy Jay, Buster Bear and Bob White, I think. Don't remember much detail, but there was a poem at the start of one chapter defining the word "wary", and another story (Buster Bear, I think) with a chapter titled "Buster (or whoever) Is a Fallen Hero", explaining the term's meaning as someone who disappoints by turning out not to deserve the hero's accolades he'd been given, once all the facts become known. (Which, in more recent days, made me wonder when there turned out to be a disabled veterans' charity called the Fallen Heroes Fund.)
Anyway, I saw that someone (Dover Books, apparently) reissued the series (or 28 books of it; Burgess wrote a lot) within the past couple of decades, which surprised me a bit; the old storytelling style of talking down to children doesn't strike me as a good fit for a modern young audience. (The West Wind series may be different; I've never seen it.)
Eric
Tommy Brown and...
Did you read any of the books about Tommy Brown and the stone chair? I read the first two, but couldn't find the third book.
Tommy Brown of course was "Farmer Brown's Boy". One of the stories in "Old Mother West Wind" (the first book) refers to him as the bad (evil, wicked -- one of those terms) Tommy Brown. Then for a long time, he was always "Farmer Brown's Boy". First he was bad, but then he became good. I think that the stone chair books -- involving magic transformation to various animals -- told the story of how Tommy became good. The third book was titled, "Tommy's Change of Heart".
The "Old Mother West Wind" series was aimed at younger children than "The Adventures of ..." series. Or at least the former sounded more childish.
-- Daphne Xu
Humbled
Thank you for including my story along with such amazing others.
This might be the nudge I needed to break out of this funk.
I can't remember when I didn't like writing. Even when I was a little kid, my family always told stories to each other.
As far as being inspired to write TG stories, I don't remember exactly. But I'm pretty sure it was some horrible story over at FM that after reading it I said to myself "Gee, I could write a better story than that!" Oh wait. Maybe that's how my little serial made your list.
A long list
With tg fiction these are my inspirations.
Tanya Allen-Shit happens but so do miracles. My introduction into TG fiction. I still reread this story from time to time. A classic as are most of her works. I like that she writes such long stories"
Melanie Brown-I'm with the band-classic. The brain jacked chronicles! Need I say more?
Prudence Walker-The teg legacy-wow! Words fail me.
Maggie Finson-Too many to single out! She is a great writer.
Renae-After the Ashes and First among fools. Two briliant stories. More people should read them
Morpheus-His work speaks for itself!
Bek D Cobin- A legend, everyone should read Merlin High, The adventures of Jordan Winters, Cat on a hotwired roof, Curse of the Brewsters. Heck just read everything. You will not be disappointed.
Randalynn- No obligations is in my top ten stories in any genre
E.E Nalley-The Erinyes stories and Shadows and Dust. Oh and the circle of friends stories
Angharad-Need I say more?
Kristen Darken-A glass half full!
Hypatia and Julie Manchester all made an impression on me as well.
I may have left some names that inspired me out but these are the one at the top of my head. If I think of anymore I will update this.
I would ask anyone who has a passing interest in reading or writing tg fiction to read from this list.
Three books and a short story did it for me
I'd already read lots of SF (Well, Verne, Asimov, Clark) so when my english teacher Mr Hancock said, try these I did and that was it.
Here are the books in the order I read them a
The Secret Agent
Catcher in the Rye
Cider with Rosie
All classics in their own right.
Then I read a stort story by D.H. Lawrence about a woman conductor on a Nottinghamshire Tram that plied its way through the coalfield. I can't remember the name of it. It was in a book of collected short stories.
However, picture he painted of life and the people who travelled on the tram and in such a few pages stuck with me to this day.
I'd love to know what the title of it was.
This was all back in 1968/69. I did say to myself that one day, I'd love to be able to write like him. I'm still trying (badly)
Samantha
Almost too many to mention
For those of an historical bent, I was born in the reign of the (so far) last King of England (and of all the rest of the long list). So there was still a not-so-lingering atmosphere clinging to everything of the recent events of WWII and the Korean War.
Later, when I got to go to school, in my school uniform of cap, shirt, tie, blazer, shorts and knee socks, and actually learnt to read, the 'currency' of trades made between we scholars were 'trash mags'. These were mostly 'cartoon'-type comics with stern-jawed British war heroes. Army, Navy and Air Force. One of the guys I did a deal with mentioned a real book, written by Captain W E Johns.
And so it was that I got into the worlds of Worrals, Gimlet and - most of all - Biggles.
The Biggles books taught me one helluva lot of geography, inspired in me the desire to learn to fly, and instilled that quaint British sense of honour.
Reading the series taught me so much, and made me want to be able to entertain others so fervently.
But mostly made me want to READ.
Other influential authors, under the heading of making me want to write, include:
Douglas Adams
Terry Pratchett
Geoff Brown
John Le Carre
Alastair McLean
Desmond Bagley
Hammond Innes
etc etc etc
Authors here:
Angharad
Beverly Taff
Cyclist
and on through the alphabet, making sure to mention
Penny Lane
etc etc etc
My sincerest of thanks to you all.
Julia
I'm fond of those old names
It's great to see Alastair McLean and Desmond Bagley mentioned.
I would bet most people under 50 don't know who they are. Except for some of the movies made from McLean's books.
Hmmm...
I began to write my own tale as a therapeutic device. I had no intention of ever posting it. But I did search the web for other 'autobiographical' writings and happened onto 'Crystal's Story Site'. I found one authoress whose output was...ridiculous. Within days she had perhaps a dozen short pieces posted. I e-mailed the writer and we began to correspond. I admired her honesty and her style. It was she who encouraged me to try fiction as a step away from the reality of my life to that point. Thanks Drea!!! :D
Just Another Little...
Bratttttttttttttttttt
I think I may have a problem with long stories..
I started with the Harry Potter books, was a huge fan of the series as a kid and still appreciate how JK's writing style grew with her audience.
As I got older I got into Terry Pratchett for his humor, just sheer imagination and world building.
From there my cousin got me hooked on some good fanfiction and I stumbled onto fem!fiction there.
My first introduction to actual TG fiction was on the Petticoat Discipline Quarterly site back when I still had dial-up internet and yahoo wasn't just 'that thing you accidentally used to see on internet explorer before bing was created'.
I practically became an insomniac trying to get through Crystals 'I can't go home like this', 'How I spent my summer vacation' and 'Texas Gal' one after the other lol
In terms of BC the first story that got me hooked was Wanda's 'Kelly girl' with several other classics including Ang's Dormouse, Ellen's Tuck Saga, Maddy's Gaby series and a few years later Krunch's 'Being Christina Chase' made me try to come up with my own ending for someone else's story for the first time ever just so I didn't go crazy with the long pause.
There are so many amazing authors on this site with so many stories that I couldn't list all the ones that have had an impact on my writing but those were definitely the ones that made me get interested in reading, before I even attempted to write something of my own :)
Lilith Langtree
As far as authors in general are concerned it was definitely Tolkien, but for TG Lilith Langtree. She hasn't posted new stories or chapters on here for a while but I still live in hope of finding out what happened to Pixie D'Angelo, Abigail, Lady Derry, Shaylee Le Fay and a few others - not that I can talk. I'm still not sure what happens to April May and while I know what happens to Belinda Jenkins I never have time to fill in the gaps!
Polly
Hard to say that it was just one...
While my favorite author, hands down, is Robert Heinlein and his book, "I will Fear no Evil" was the first book that I read that could be described as TG fiction, I loved all his books. So I will say that it was Heinlein that made me want to write.
Although it was Kathleen Moorehouse that motivated me to write, she was a close family friend who was like a grandmother toward me. She published her book "Rain on the Just" and was nominated for the Pulitzer prize in 1936 for it. (You can go check the records for what book that just barely managed to beat her out of the prize). It was Kathleen that saw my early teenage scriblings, encouraged me to continue and got me my first typewriter.
We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
Heinlein for me too
I will fear no evil was the first novel dealing with the differences between men and women that I remember. The Famous Five by Enid Blyton touched on the issue (George the tomboy and Anne the girly-girl) and Mallory Towers (also by Enid Blyton) gave a tantalising glimpse into the world of girls. I remember worrying that someone would tell me I couldn't read girls books.
Heinlein also influenced me by writing an article on how to write for publication. I haven't published (or shared) anything yet, but I feel it's just a matter of finding enough time.
The stories that started me reading TG fiction were For a girl by O2bxx and Last of the fey by Anesdora's Urn (I may have spelled that wrong).
my list
my list? well for mainstream I'd have to say Don Pendleton, Lindsey McKenna, Maggie Shayne, B.J. Daniels, C.S. Lewis and of course; J.K. Rowling, spring to mind. I read Richard Marcinko too, for entertainment value, no booing please.
For TG-related: Tiffany Shar, Julie O, Janet Stickney and Joanna Foxcourt became my main favorites in the beginning. I do have to mention Crystal Sprite, but I do so grudgingly as she intentionally left works unfinished.
I do have to say this; I've been praised by some of the active writers here, in that they have said I inspired them; direction, development and etc. I thank them for such kindness and take it as encouragement to better my own work. There are many sub-genres featured here, so there is something for just about everybody. Please enjoy the many wonderful writers here and perhaps be inspired to become one yourself.
quidquid sum ego, et omnia mea semper; Ego me.
alecia Snowfall
A few inspired me...
A few of the authors...are:
K.T. Leone
Stanman (RIP)
Tom Clancy (Yes, he did insiper me...(RIP))
Clive Cussler
James Patterson
John Grisholm
I know I'll forget the writers here on BC, but I been on here since I was a youngster....(Still am, but not as young as I was...my uncle first signed me in here)..
TGSine --958
thanks ....
I just write as a hobby, but I thought my stories aren't that great (of course, i can see my different styles of my stories from the beginning...) I'm glad I inspired someone to write..
TGSine --958
So, so many
I have always been addicted to reading and read mostly scifi (Heinlein, Asimov, Clark, Campbell, just to mention a few). I always wanted to be a writer, but was always too intimidated by that blank sheet of paper. Then I found SO much inspiration on this website. JulieO, Elrod, Erin and so many more, but the ones who truly inspired me to start was Morpheus with his story "Touching the Moon" and Maggie Finson with her Whateley Academy stories.
Waterdog
Can't recall who got me interested in writing, but
When I was a kid, if I'd read all the books I'd gotten at the library that week it seemed logical that if I wanted a story I'd have to make up my own. The stuff was terrible, with explosions rendered as a big page filling BOOM with stars around them. Then I tried to copy the slapdash zaniness of the books based on the tv series GET SMART. So maybe indirectly Mel Brooks and Buck Henry were my first influences. And probably Mad Magazine too. And I always wrote science fiction, at first based on the movies I saw and then Asimov, Bradbury, Frank Herbert, Clarke type stuff; then it was more like Phil Dick, Harlan Ellison, Michael Moorcock, Thomas Disch; the weirdos of SF.
In my pretentious artsy-fartsy phase when I wasn't churning out bad beat poetry I tried to be profound like Herman Hesse, or "real" like Kerouac, the latter giving me an excuse to babble and ignore punctuation, which fortunately I got over. Adored Vonnegut. Thomas Pynchon blew me away with his endless vistas of freewheeling inventiveness. JG Ballard scared me and gave me an interest in disturbing stuff.
Started reading TG fiction at FM. The fetishy erotic stuff was kind of a thrill but it seemed like there was plenty of it already I didn't see any need to add to it and it really wasn't me (I'm sort of undersexed). Then I discovered JULIE O. Her stories were neat professional level detective fiction, science fiction and fantasy potboilers (nothing wrong with genre potboilers) that had the transgender characters and elements perfectly integrated into them; and I realized I could do stuff that was TG but also me; using all my influences. When I found Big Closet there were a whole bunch of good writers writing TG fantasy, science fiction and real life type tales; like Grover and Susan Brown and Angela Rasch, who impressed the hell out of me with how well they could write; and I knew I wanted to be part of this scene. And in 2007 I wrote my weird pidgin transvestite caveman story OG HAVE PROBLEM...
hugs, Veronica
Oh, and Heather Rose Brown's stuff wowed me with its pure little girl sweetness.
Well shit, I guess it really CAN happen here..,
.
Beepadotta, boopadotta, deepadotta, boop!
I remember those Max Smart books, by William Johnston, a fantastically facile writer who specialized in novelizations of TV shows and movies. A man who was seriously overlooked for the most part for the quality of writing he did. I think he did win a couple of awards for his standalone mystery writing.
The sound effect subject line is from one of the Max Smart books where a robot is a main character. :) One of his other characters in another of the Max Smart books, an Icelandic flight attendant, had a name something like Jiggldehanlalilla. :)
And yes, I can detect a hint of his style of zany in your writing. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Fly.....ing....
Ba....ba...loo...skis...
Love, Andrea Lena
Exactly
What a story! :)
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
I started reading TG fiction
I started reading TG fiction about 15 years ago, and one of the very first sites I found was Bea's (RIP), followed by Storysite where one of the first stories I read was Genni Smith's the Jade Box, which was very influential on my later writing.
For writing in general... Sir Terry Pratchett is probably top of the list.
Debs xxxx
Yes
I can't believe I left that one out. It was a great story. I still go back and read it from time to time. I always wonder about how Part 2 would have ended
I also...
I also go back to read "The Jade Box" and wonder how the sequel would have continued. It is one of my favorites, even though it has some fridge logic issues -- especially near the end.
-- Daphne Xu
Inspiration is a simple answer for me
While I have not yet posted a story (it will be posted with in the next week) I can honestly say it is one of the commentators listed above, Debbie V, who has inspired me. I had read various stories throughout the years and tried to write my own, but the "Jamieverse" really motivated me to buckle down and put my first story together. She showed me that all TG fiction was not about being forced, magical or unloving.
When I first tried to write a story when I was younger it was writer named Jay McInerney that inspired me. The book 'Bright Lights, Big City" was the first modern novel I was assigned to read that got my attention.
More Authors that helped me...
Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe, great authors for political insights, Debbie Macomber, Nora Roberts and Sue Wiggins for romance (one of my characters will be dating a single mom with gender fluid kids) and a few websites that inspired me, along with my uncle (who told me about BC and helped me with Tarja).
Now I think Ef is inspiring me, too, since I think I could be almost as great as his stories. Not as good, but almost..
TGSine --958
Three People
There are a lot of writers I enjoyed reading.
But their are just three who made me want to take up writing again. It started with reading the P.I. Sunny Randell novels by the late Robert B Parker, and then Raymond Haigh's Samatha Quest novels about his so deadly stylish female secret agent.
The final push to write again came with the joy of reading our own Maddy Bell's tales of Gaby and Nena.
The first being my own bit of Gaby fandom.
Actually their is another element as well. As when I began playing around with my Gaby story, Maddy's old website mention BigCloset and following her lead I found a place to write ts storys. So thank-you Erin and the crew of BC, because without you I probably would never have continued.
Best wishes
Sophie