How Important Is One’s Favorite Childhood Author? Very!!

by Kassandra Lamb ~ I did a blog tour recently for my new release, Lethal Assumptions, for which I was asked to provide several short blog posts. One suggested topic was writing about a favorite childhood author.

We authors get that question a lot—who was your favorite childhood author? And I never have trouble answering it—Laura Ingalls Wilder. But this time I asked myself WHY she has remained my all-time favorite childhood author.

I read a ton of books as a kid, always had my nose stuck in one. And my best friend—in my mind, maybe not in hers—was my school’s librarian.

I ended up loving mysteries and becoming a mystery writer.

So why wasn’t the author of the Nancy Drew mysteries my fave? Heck, I can’t even remember who wrote that series.

But before I became a mystery buff, I loved stories about the pioneer days in the United States. This started in 2nd grade when I was caught reading over my neighbor’s shoulder. There were two reading groups, and mine had been assigned a book I found boring. But the kid next to me was in the other group, and their book was all about a boy living during pioneer days.

I probably read every book about pioneers ever written for kids. But for some reason, Laura Ingalls Wilder, the author of the Little House on the Prairie series, struck a chord that has resonated throughout my entire life.

I even wrote to tell her she was my favorite childhood author.

I was nine years old. The librarian said she would mail it for me.

I can still see the scene in my mind’s eye of me sitting at one of the big wooden tables in the middle of the school library, carefully crafting my letter.

Unfortunately, she had passed away four years prior (yes, I am that old), at the age of 90. I seem to recall the librarian telling me she had received a note back, from Laura’s family, thanking me for my support of her life’s work.

Looking back, I suspect the librarian was telling a white lie, trying to cushion the blow that my heroine was gone. She might not have even had an address to mail my note to.

What I didn’t realize then…Laura Ingalls Wilder would inspire me to be a writer someday.

All I knew at the time was that I loved her stories of growing up in pioneer days.

But this simple, unassuming woman, telling her real-life story, had planted the seed in my mind that maybe, just maybe, I too could be a writer.

So never underestimate the importance of one’s favorite childhood author. Their books not only expand vocabulary and teach life lessons and all that…

But they just might plant seeds that determine a child’s future path and success.

Who was your favorite childhood author? And why?? What did they inspire in you?

Posted by Kassandra Lamb. Kassandra is a retired psychotherapist turned mystery writer. She is the author of the Kate Huntington psychological mysteries, set in her native Maryland, and the Marcia Banks and Buddy cozy mysteries, set in Central Florida. Plus she has started a new police procedural series, also set in Florida—The C.o.P. on the Scene mysteries. And she writes romantic suspense under the pen name of Jessica Dale.

Misterio press produces an array of quality crime fiction. We post here twice a month, usually on Tuesdays, to alert you to new releases, to entertain, and to inform.

Please follow us (via email, upper right sidebar) so you don’t miss out on new books and other interesting or fun stuff! (We will not lend, sell nor otherwise bend, spindle or mutilate your e-mail address. 😉 )

To see our Privacy Policy click HERE.