Like many writers, I carry a writing kit with me everywhere I go. My kit is a large, brown Pierre Cardin bag and this is what you’ll find inside: a bottle of water, Ghirardelli chocolate, two writing journals, Altoids, pens and pencils, and books. Right now, I have five books in my bag: two fantasy, one literary fiction, one contemporary sweet romance, and a book of poetry. Why? Because writing starts with reading. It’s that simple. Reading fuels my imagination and gives me writing energy. Here are four books/series that have truly inspired me, both as a reader and as a writer:
The Harry Potter Series, by JK Rowling, has played a significant role in my family. I’ve read the series out loud to my children a dozen times now. Yes, every word of every book out loud. I have eight children and I couldn’t afford to buy them each a copy when the books came out and sharing wasn’t working (“Mom! He moved my bookmark!”), so I just read them aloud. I did the perfect Luna Lovegood voice before she came out in film! Every summer we celebrate Harry Potter’s birthday and make our own version of butter beer. Harry Potter provided my family with quality time together. I want my writing to be a good resource for others too.
Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri, is a short story collection that continues to inspire me to write in various forms, novel and short story. Beautiful language stimulates creativity and introspection for both reader and writer. One of my sons lives in India and these Indian-influenced stories inspire me.
Europe and the People Without History, by Eric Wolf, introduced me to a new way of looking at history by examining the role of people who never made it into the history books. This made me realize how important secondary characters are to a story. For example, I have a villain in my novel Dangerous Impressions, Avarice Shade, he’s a secondary character but I know what kind of clothes he wears, his taste in food, where he travels and shops, what he reads, that he uses premium unleaded in his car, all sorts of things that aren’t in the novel, but still important for me to know in order to make him a good secondary character.
And then there is another series that inspires me for a different reason. When I was teaching Introduction to Writing, a developmental college class, the students in that small class admitted that they had never read much. There was only one thing all of them had in common: Each had read only one series from start to finish. One student was just finishing the series that semester. It was the same series: The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer. I love the books that make my students read for leisure and turn nonreaders into readers! That is magic.
Bio: Lisa Aldridge lives in the Ozarks where magic happens every day. She is the author of Dangerous Impressions, the first book of The Dangerous Impressions Series for New Adults.
Before writing full-time, Lisa was a cultural anthropologist and spent a lot of time in dusty rooms with Native American effigy pots and skeletal remains that were thousands of years old. They whispered intriguing stories to her imagination. She also taught Sociology, History, and English college classes. But when she wrote a novel for her college students, she realized her passion for writing.
Lisa has an MFA from Lindenwood University and has published short stories, creative nonfiction, poetry, and flash fiction in various literary journals. She received the Samuel C. Dellinger Award from the University of Arkansas Anthropology Department.
She loves hanging out with her poet-husband and her hilarious kids. She also loves painting and dark chocolate. Someday she hopes to paint an edible landscape with melted chocolates.
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