This is my goal in life. To become an author. Ever since I was 6 (from 1 up I'd wanted to be an astronaut) writing a book, creating stories, and getting paid for it would be the best job in the world. I harbour a lot of respect for authors, as they actually managed to sit down and finish a book (a task which I should probably work on). Some of my favourite authors are George R.R. Martin, Douglas Adams and Stephen King.
1. I quite like the way that Michael Gerard Bauer and James Roy designed their sites. Bauer's list blog was very interesting and quite funny ( I loved the Daleks To-Do-List). I've had the fortune to see Roy speak at the Brisbane Writers Festival and he deserves all the praise he receives. I couldn't access Steph Bowe's or LM Huge's sites, but I did manage to get on to Steven Herick's and Michael Hyde's. I find Herick's badly designed, and not appealing at all, as the writing is all but impossible to read. Hyde's is quite interesting, especially the way he show where he gets the ideas for places in his novels from.
2. James Roy always wanted to write as a child, but as an adult, when he was stuck in a job he hated, he turned to writing for a new career. Herick failed Year 10, and discovered a love of writing when he wrote a poem at the age of 18. He then decided to become a writer. Hyde used to work as an English teacher, but now works as a lecturer and author. Bauer took a break from his job as an English teacher to pursue his long time writing fantasies, and now finds himself as a full time writer. All these authors have different backgrounds and motivations for writing, but all also produce amazing pieces of literature.
3. For this part I'm going to choose two of my favourite authors. Douglas Adams and Stephen King. Adams' style is very quirky, witty and weird. It's like he's off on another planet when he's writing (which he should be, since his books are about space-travel). I love this kind of writing. The quirky, one liner's written style is perhaps one of my favourite types of book. Adams is a master at this. A lot of people enjoy his books because his way of writing is so different to all the others. The other type of book I love is the epic, and Stephen King has not let me down yet. He has a way of producing plot twists at points where I never expected them to be. He is also great at linking his books together, through small, apparently unimportant details, which all join together near the end of the series into one huge revelation or twist. For example, the owner of a book store which one of the main characters walk into in the third book. Two books later, it turns out that he owns the lot on which the center of the universe is located. This is why I love King's style of writing. You have to pay attention to every detail, however small.
4. The author I've chosen for this task is surprise, surprise, George R.R. Martin. I know I talk a lot about him but that's simply because I enjoy his books so much. His website is http://georgerrmartin.com/ . Martin was born on September 20, 1948. He was writing at a very young age, and began to sell monster stories to other kids for pennies. His first professional sale was in 1971, when he was 21, and the story was entititled "The Hero". He studied journalism in college, but still wrote part time throughout the 1970's. In 79, after a divorce, Martin became a full time writer. Martin, besides being an author, has also been a producer and script writer in Hollywood. He's worked on "The Twilight Zone" and "The Beauty and The Beast". However, his biggest success was "A Song of Ice and Fire" which garnered him fans across the world.
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