RJ Blain Shares Her Favourite #Books - #AmReading #Fantasy

8:30 AM | Labels: fantasy, RJ Blain, Storm Without End

What books did you love growing up?

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle, The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley, and all of the Valdemar novels by Mercedes Lackey. These were followed up by Stephen King’s The Stand and Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind. I skipped a lot of the younger age reading stuff and went for big fat fantasies and horrors pretty quickly.

Who is your favorite author?

Mercedes Lackey. She was the author who inspired me to write. My favorite of her works is definitely her oldest books, though. Nowadays, my favorites also include Jim Butcher (Mhmm Harry Dresden and Tavi!) and Brandon Sanderson.

What book genre of books do you adore?

Traditional and Epic Fantasy. I really love escaping to fall off worlds full of magic and wonder, with a healthy side dish of action, adventure, and excitement. I’m growing a bit more fond of Urban Fantasy as well, though I tend to favor novels like The Dresden Files.

What book should everybody read at least once?

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. This book made me think, and I really enjoy books that make me think. I feel this sort of novel has a lot of impact over time. That said, I think it needs to be read in the mindset of comparing the reality of our world with the presentation of the government and world from Brave New World to have the most impact.

Are there any books you really don’t enjoy?

I really have a strong dislike for A Song of Fire and Ice by George R. R. Martin. I never was able to get into it, and I keep getting pressured by people who think I should enjoy it when I don’t. I probably wouldn’t dislike it nearly as much if so many people didn’t act like I should like it when I don’t.

It doesn’t fit my particular tastes. I have nothing against people liking this series, but I don’t want it shoved in my face when I just don’t enjoy it.

What do you hope your obituary will say about you?

Obituaries are so interesting. If I had to have one written about me though, I’d hope it’d be written by a fan of my writing. My writing is an integral part of me, so that’s what I’d like for it to be about. So I guess I’d like to be survived by my pets (and hopefully my spouse) and my fans – I’d like my writing to be remembered by people who enjoyed my stories.

Location and life experiences can really influence writing, tell us where you grew up and where you now live?

I grew up in the middle of the woods in Maryland. It was about 45 minutes to get to the nearest actual library, 20-30 minutes to the closest grocery store, and the morning commute to my high school took 2 hours. Once I learned to read, there was nothing else to do but play pretend and read books, so I got lost in my own little world fairly often.

The next door neighbor and I played abandoned on an island using a picnic table as our island and boat pretty often.

I abandoned ship after I turned 18 to move to Canada, as my fiancé (at the time) had work there, so it made sense for me to immigrate to Canada.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

I don’t really know. I just love telling stories, so I tell stories. If anything, I’m inspired by the people who enjoy reading the crazy stuff I come up with. I don’t really get inspired by the usual culprits, such as sitting in front of a fire with hot cocoa or watching the snow. I just write. I’ve never been one to try to need inspiration to write. That requires some outside condition to do it, and that’s a trap I just don’t want to fall into.