Hi! This isn't from a meme but I find your writing quite unique and compelling and I was wondering if you could share your literary influences like authors, books, etc.
So…last night i wrote out a whole long answer to this….then i went to check something on GoodReads….and then i remembered The Crush™ said she loves GoodReads….and i looked her up….AND I FOUND THAT SHE DEF READS REALLY BAD, REALLY STEAMY LESBIAN EROTICAAAAAA.
Understandably, I had a massive scream and shut all my browser tabs on accident and lost this post. So, thank you, sweet anon, who ever you are….you have given me….such….a….gift. omggggg.
So I’m sorry if this is a bit less organized, I think my brain is like….gone now.
BUT to answer your question (and thank you, that is the nicest comment!!!), first, I’m a HUGE book re-reader. On a yearly basis I reread the following (often more than once) and I think they’re very engrained into who I am and how I write:
1) Harry Potter (whole series yearly reread, but that’s a duh! like many of us, its foundational.)2) Ella Enchanted, Gail Carson Levine (something about this book just…ugh. I think it’s very Gay Experience? Like at the end where she’s trying to break the spell, especially, I think that had a lot of influence on me). 3) Crown Duel, Sherwood Smith (I’m on my 8th copy of this book because I’ve worn it out. I have such strong feelings for this protagonist, I just understand her and I cry through the whole book)4) Deathless, Catherynne M. Valente & also her Fairyland Series (The Crush™ rated lesbian erotica higher than Fairyland and I’m SHOOK). If I could write like anyone in the world, it would be CMV. She also has this short story in a wlw anthology all about how Gretel fell in love with the witch, and pushed her into the fire all the same. Now her brother dominates her life and she goes back in the nights and sits among the burnt out gingerbread house with the witch’s bones and like…oh my wowww, ok, yes I want to write like her. 5) Connie Willis’s time travel series. My current fic is super influenced by Black Out and All Clear, probably the best researched historical I’ve ever read. I literally get confused on the subway and will not remember I’m not in wwii London. And my other fic, ‘i wanna grow up from the rhythm of a younger heart’ was very much inspired by her book To Say Nothing of the Dog. 6) For plot twists, all books by Kate Morton and The Thirteen Tale by Diane Setterfield (I’m still GASPING. That level of didn’t see it coming, but all the clues were there, is everything I aspire to). 7) The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Patricia C. Wrede (this series is also super foundation to me. they’re just amazing).
I also grew up obsessed with fairytales (and def not Disney, was DEF not a Disney kid). I liked them dark and mysterious. I was obsessed with illustrations, like my mom had old anthology of My Bookhouse books from the 1920s with the original Beaupré Miller illustrations. The stories were from all over and I think they really had an impact on me. and I had really beautifully illustrated Eugene Field poetry book and of course all the Cicely Mary Barker Flower Books, and my grandmother’s original Raggedy Anne books which had really beautiful fairies. I feel like when I write, I’m always trying to bring those visual back because to me they just had a very specific, magical feeling for me.
Also, and maybe this sounds weird, but growing up I watched a LOT of old movie musicals. And I think something of the heightened drama and manner of dialogue rubbed off on me in some way. Like Katharine Hepburn in the Philadelphia Story and anything with Judy Garland (I cry through like everything with her) and Fred and Ginger movies that are like….absurdist but also weirdly emotional?
And I think I’ve always been attracted to like, pining and longing…like I memorized the entirety of The Lady of Shalott and would recite it to my class when i was like 10 years old and I would be SO EMOTIONAL. LOL.
this was longer than it should have been ahhhh! sorry! but thanks for asking, I’m not sure how I got to be such a emo magic obsessed lil bean but those are def all factors.
Happy New Year!
