Thursday 4 November 2010

Author Spotlight week -Vijaya Schartz shares her favorite authors

Author Victor Hugo

When I came to America (I was born and raised in France) I discovered the fantasy section of the bookstore and my greatest fear was that I wouldn’t buy enough books to last me the entire week. From Terrence Brook, Anne McCafrey’s dragons, and historical fantasy sagas, like The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. But when it came to pure science-fiction literature, I loved the stories, like the Dune series by Frank Herbert, but some other sci-fi was a little too out there and unbelievable, and I missed the romance. And in literary Science fiction, the ending is often dark, not always satisfying, or it’s an open ending. I hate that.
From my childhood, I still love the French classics, Antoine de Saint Exupery (The Little Prince is his best known work in America but he wrote incredibly beautiful novels) Victor Hugo is a god in my eyes, the nineteenth century equivalent of Hemingway, and I love Alexandre Dumas (The Three Musketeers). All have a special place in my heart.

In romance, I love Diana Gabaldon (although she doesn’t consider herself a romance author), but I read across the line and one of my favorite authors is Richard Bach (his airplane stories remind me of the French author St.Exupery).
Maybe because I am French, I bring something foreign to my stories, and that’s why I fit so well in sci-fi.

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