Bookshelf Snooping - Carol Ward

1. Your childhood favourite

It was a book of fairy tales called Castles and Dragons. I remember a few of the stories in it, but the book itself was lost somewhere between childhood and getting married. I haunt the used bookstores and antique shops, hoping to find another copy, but so far I’ve had no luck. My second favourite would be Black Beauty – I remember my mother reading it to me chapter by chapter.

2. Your current favourite

Current favourite? That would have to be the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward – mostly ‘cause I’m reading the newest one and that makes me want to read the others again. :-)

3. Your top five authors

Charles de Lint, his writing is so lyrical and I love the way he weaves together myths and legends from different cultures into his stories.

Jamie DeBree, not just because she’s a friend, but because no matter what she throws at her heroines, they always rise to the occasion. And because no matter what genre she’s writing in, her stories are amazing.

Edgar Rice Burroughs, I ate up his books when I was a teenager – Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, Pellucidar . . .

Anne McCaffrey, do I really need a reason? Just read one of her books.

Holly Lisle, because not only is she a fabulous author in a variety of genres, she really does “pay it forward” with her fabulous web site full of writing advice.

4. Book(s) you’re reading now

Lover Unleashed, by J.R. Ward

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelly

Tempest (rereading), by Jamie DeBree

Into the Unknown (non-fiction), Reader’s Digest Books

Fragile Things, by Neil Gaiman

5. Book(s) you’ve pretended to read

Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens. I always hated books we were forced to read in English and for some reason I really couldn’t get into this one. I read the first chapter, the last chapter, and watched one of the movie versions to get through the test.

6. Book(s) you’ve bought for the cover

If you mean for the illustration on the cover, then just one. It was Demon In the Mirror, by Andrew J. Offutt and Richard Lyon, and I bought it for the Boris Vallejo cover. It turned out to be a pretty good book too. :-)

7. Book you’re a champion for

Wuthering Heights, by Charlotte Bronte. It always amazes me, the number of people who don’t like this book. It was one of only two books I was assigned to read in high school that I actually liked.  

8. Book that changed your life

There’s two of them really. The first is the Kadin, by Bertrice Small. Back when I started reading romance novels (as a teenager) there were two kinds: Harlequins, which were set either in England or Australia and whose heroines were either nurses or secretaries, or bodice rippers, which were pretty much “woman gets kidnapped by hero and forced into sex until she realized he's her true love.” In the Kadin, the girl does get kidnapped in the beginning, but she doesn’t remain a victim. She turns things around and deals with her situation on her own terms. And when she escapes, she returns to her home and actually makes something of her life. This was a big revelation for me, and changed the way I viewed romance (in books).

The second is Moonheart, by Charles de Lint. This was the first urban fantasy I ever read. Up until this point I had no idea you could cross genres. Reading a fantasy in a contemporary setting was a real eye-opener for me and opened a whole world of possibilities for my own writing.

9. Book you most want to read again for the first time

The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas

10. Book you turn to for comfort

The Woodwife, by Terry Windling. I don’t know what it is about this book . . .

11. Favourite line from a book

I honesty can’t think of a favourite line. Every time I try, my mind goes blank. :-)