How I Became a Bookaholic
Though nobody ever really documented when I
started reading, it must’ve been sometime before I was 4, because that’s when I
started writing stories. (My grandmother
still has Sammy the Snake in her filing-cabinet, complete with 4-year-old signature,
date, and author illustrations of what look like curly wads of poop.)
I was an avid reader, starting with (of
course), Dr. Seuss. From there, I
graduated to Tamora Pierce (omg…Best.
YA. Author. EVER!!) and at 8, I was reading Stephen King
and Dean Koontz at the blinding pace of one every couple days. (Probably not the best reading material for
an 8-year-old, but hey, my mom had no idea I was sneaking their novels off to
my room…) I supplemented that with Anne
McCaffery, Orson Scott Card, Mercedes Lackey, and Robert Jordan. I had a rather eclectic taste, but the common
thread was that they had to be a
character author or I’d quietly make the book disappear.
Books were my life until I was 11, at which point, I decided I was ready to try
one on my own. Up until that moment, I’d
been satisfying my carnal urge to write with short stories (one of which got
published in a print magazine!) and had a small mountain of them in my
closet. Well, I quickly found out that
writing novels was about 100x cooler because I had so much extra time to
develop the characters. I finished my
first novel at 12 years old (I’ll spare you the suspense…it really, really
sucked), weighing in at about 145,000 words, and from that point, there was no
going back. Looking back, it took about
5 books to really start getting the hang of things. (Read:
Before the books stopped sucking.)
After that, though, I kept finding myself
assaulted by random strangers (usually off of the internet) who wanted to read
everything I’d ever written. Talk about
an ego boost…fledgling writers really need those moments every once in awhile
to keep them going. Never did I send out
those first 5 books, though. They are
buried deep on my oldest laptops, and
I’ve made a point not to transfer them to my new computers, that way, when
those random strangers come to me demanding to read everything I’ve ever
written, I can hand them my latest ten books and say, “Awww, damn, I can’t send
you the first five, don’t have them on my comp, sorry! (The gag reflex is so strong every time I
look at them that I have trouble eating afterwards.)
Over the years, my ‘bookaholic’ status has
changed slightly from where it was when I was eight. Nowadays, I spend so much time writing,
editing, and proofing my own and my writing buddies’ works that I have much
less time to read (though George R. R. Martin is still my hero). But, on the other hand, instead of
painstakingly scrawling out the adventures of snakes that look like diseased
cow-patties, I’m now currently working on my 16th novel and have
thousands of readers screaming for my next book. Makes me grin to think about how far I’ve
come…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Sara King was four years old when she wrote
her first short story. And, while “Bob the Brontosaurus” and “Sammy the Snake”
weren’t exactly enthralling reading material, she thankfully progressed to
novels when she was 12. Seventeen years later, she is currently working on her
16th book, the third novel in the Guardians of the First Realm Alaskan Paranormal
world. Sara lives in Alaska with her soul mate and greatest fan, David. If you’re interested in her latest sci-fi,
fantasy, romance, or paranormal books, check out her website.
You can also friend her on Facebook
or email her at kingnovel@gmail.com.
Alaskan fire and
Wings of retribution all by Sara King.
Deets
-The giveaway is international.
-The prizes will be in Kindle format gifted from Amazon.
-The first winner will choose which book they would like and so on.
-Giveaway ends 22nd April 2012.
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