Not too long ago, an author I know on Facebook, asked
her followers who their three favorite authors were. It took me a minute, but I
did come up with a list of four authors, the problem is it was far from
accurate. She would have gotten a different answer if she specified a genre.
I have a ton of favorite authors, all depending on the
genre.
For instance, my three favorite mystery authors are Dick and
Felix Francis and Jana Deleon, which is interesting because the Francis father
and son duo write straight mysteries. In contrast, Jana Deleon writes closer to cozy
mysteries but it's more on the misadventure level or maybe a “fish out of water”
scenario. To put it frankly, the Francis duo writes intense mysteries and Deleon
writes hilarious stories.
Now on the other hand, if she had picked the genre of
romance, well, there are so many sub-genres, but I’ll stick with two. In the
sub-genre of LDS romance, my favorite is Sharon Downing Jarvis, with an apology
to my Facebook friend who originally asked the question, because that is her
genre too! And my favorite sweet romance author is Linda Goodnight. If I had to
come up with three, I’d say my favorite on a more secular level would have to be Muriel Jenson, but I think that is because she has a very accurate description
of what it is like to have twin babies, she’s also kind of lighthearted about
it.
Now for children’s authors, I guess I could say J.K. Rowling because the Harry Potter series is supposed to be in that category, but I tend
to think of her works as more in the fantasy genre, so I’d go with Gertrude Chandler Warner for children’s author. And yes,
she is a mystery author, but also a children’s author. Judy Blume could also be
considered a children’s author for at least some of her work, but my favorites
of hers are more in the YA romance category.
I have Agatha Christie, Ken Follett, and James Patterson in my mystery
collection as well, and they are all excellent authors in their own right.
Another favorite author of
mine is Jason Wright author of Christmas Jars and Richard Paul Evans author
of The Christmas Box, though I admit I like works of both men that fall into
different genres than these, it is these books that introduced me to their
wonderful writing skills.
I also like biographies
and autobiographies though the majority of those I have are for past and
present General Authorities of my church, I do have a few on historical figures
and even current celebrities; however, in this case, I can only think of one favorite autobiography, that would C.S. Lewis. But I also could mention that
I like Emma Bombeck’s books a lot and I have several.
And I could name so many
other authors mostly because I’m so widely read.
In the category of
historical fiction, I’d have to with G. Lund. Yes, he is LDS historical fiction
but well, all of my historical fiction is LDS, since the only other stuff I
have in that genre are by the Yorgason brothers.
Though I do have at least
one book by the Yorgason brothers that is non-fiction, and I couldn’t begin to
name all the inspirational non-fiction LDS authors I have, so I’m not going to
try.
I have one favorite author
who is the aunt of a friend of mine. I in fact learned of her through his wife.
The author is Julie Helm, and her book is The Crooked Swan. It is such a sweet story,
you should read it.
Now in the fantasy genre,
I’ve already named two; J.K. Rowling and C.S. Lewis, except I like his
autobiography more than Chronicles of Narnia. The other author I have in this genre
is Frank L. Baum for obvious reasons.
And this list doesn’t even
mention Dorothy Gillman, Mark Twain, Frances Hodson Burnett, or Victor Hugo.
In short, I am a writer and
as such I am a reader and I really like a lot of different genres. I mostly write romance in both sweet and YA, but well one of my supposedly sweet
romances is actually speculative fiction. I don’t even think I have any books
in that genre, so I don’t know how that happened.
And then there is my
sci-fi, except on that level I do have a few favorites. Starting with Gene
Roddenberry and William Shatner. I might add I like Leonard Nimoy too but his
falls in the autobiography and poetry genres.
And yes, I am a big fan.
Konnie’s list, however, would
be totally different from mine.
Anyway, Happy writing
everyone!