Write by Wednesday-- The Stories that Stay With You

A couple of weeks ago, I had the delightful opportunity to meet a fellow writer that, shockingly, lives in the same tiny, middle-of-nowhere town I inhabit. She had read Max and Menna and gave me some incredible feedback on the book, saying that it had stayed with her.

As a writer, I think that is the best feedback I could possibly hope for from a reader, fellow writer, or anyone else. It took me over a decade to write Max and Menna. I actually do not consider the genre or tone of the book to be in line with my typical style as a writer, but I stuck with it and had to write it because it was a story that I could not shake. The idea that I was able to convey a story that haunted me for a decade in such a way that it stays with people beyond the last page is... well, I love it. That more than any royalty check or sales rank proves to me that I need to keep sitting here and banging away at my laptop weekend after weekend.

I have to give props, though, to so many writers who created books that stayed with me and propelled me forward with my writing, and there are too many to name. However, I have selected the following list, which interests me because of its variety. Some of these books stayed with me because of their beauty, and others because of their depravity. For some, the words linger with me because of the skill of the prose, while some just tell stories too enticing to forget. In no particular order, here is my very abridged hit list of books that took days to leave me:

• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (I've written about this one and why a whole lot)
• The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
• The Color of Night by Madison Smartt Bell 
• World War Z by Max Brooks
• IT by Stephen King
• Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
• Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Flight by Sherman Alexie
• Going Bovine by Libba Bray

What are your lingering books? You know, the ones that just seem to grab on to your soul?

A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- B

Continuing on with favorite storytellers, like A, B found me struggling over picking between two authors. This time, however, since both have the same last name, I am going to cheat and include them both. Both are amazing writers of literary fiction, one building a name for herself, and the other one of the most well-known names in the literary world.

Jessica Bell
Jessica, a fellow Lucky Press author, blew me away with her debut novel String Bridge. I know Jessica through her blog, and email exchange around her work, but none of this prepared me for the lyrical and vivid language the brought her novel to life. Pulsing with emotion, and brutally honest, String Bridge is certainly on my must-read list!

Madison Smartt Bell
If you don't know Madison Smartt Bell, go buy Color of Night right now! It's one of the most amazing pieces of contemporary fiction I've read, landing Bell a place in league with Margaret Atwood, John Irving, and other literary greats of our time!