Last time, I wrote about the effect C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia had on me (well, more specifically The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe). Today, I thought I'd write about Tamora Pierce's books, since they were another set of books that had a somewhat profound effect on my writing.
I don't remember exactly how old I was when I first stumbled upon Ms. Pierce's books on my libraries shelves. I do know that I was in late elementary or early middle school when I finally started reading them. And when I did, I loved them. Until I read her books, I hadn't really read any fantasy that featured girls as the main characters. Until then, I'd been mostly reading those horse books that most little girls seem to love. I also read a few other things, but very little fantasy.
Not that I hadn't wanted to read fantasy. Ever since I read The Chronicles of Narnia I had wanted to read more fantasy, but I had a lot of trouble finding what I was looking for. Which was fantasy featuring girls like me having adventures. I couldn't find much.
And then I stumbled upon Ms. Pierce's books. I started with First Test and loved it. That sent me scrambling to find the other Tortall books, which I pretty much devoured. I waited somewhat impatiently for the rest of the Protector quartet to be published, rereading the books more times than I could count. I had finally found girls that I could connect with, that were having the kinds of adventures I'd always dreamed of.
Reading those books made me realize that I wanted more of those stories. It was this want of more stories that helped lead to me wanting to write. Where Narnia made me love creating worlds, Tortall showed me that girls could be heroes.
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