I enjoy writing. I love imagining and getting my imagination on paper. I was, however, not writing much until a little more than a year ago. In June-ish of 2012, I wanted to read a book I would love. I had just finished Jim Butcher’s latest book, so I started reading different Urban Fantasy books and found myself wishing they were anywhere near as good as Jim Butcher’s series. I was looking for something else to read, but was finding anything. I came across Zero Sight by an independent author named B. Justin Shier. I thought, I’ll give it go. Well, I read the book quickly and found it quite enjoyable.
Zero Sight kept me up for a couple late nights because it was well-written and had very interesting characters that I thoroughly enjoyed. But the B. Justin Shier words that inspired me weren’t in his book. They were after his book, in his Acknowledgments. The line that really hit me was this:
I was fresh out of Jim Butcher novels…so I decided to start writing the novel that I wished I could read. – B. Justin Shier.
I realized that I was reading B. Justin Shier’s book for the very same reason he wrote it. I was fresh out of Jim Butcher novels and I wanted something else to read. But I am a writer. Sure, not a published one (yet). But I am a writer. I got a degree in creative writing. I spent three years reading slush at Leading Edge Magazine, where, my first semester, Brandon Sanderson attended a few times. I took a class specifically on writing science fiction and fantasy from David Wolverton (David Farland), and supposed Stephenie Meyer was in that exact same class (she did look familar the first time I saw her cover picture). Between my imagination and my education, I had all the skills I needed to do exactly what B. Justin Shier did. Write a book and publish it.
Sure I was first inspired by authors like J. R. R. Tolkien, then Terry Brooks, David Eddings, and Dean Koontz. But B. Justin Shier, a lesser known independent author, was just as important in inspiring me. That one line from his Acknowledgments took me to the next level. Thank you B.
FYI: I finished my novel in August-ish of 2012 and have spent a year revising it. I’ve worked hard. Writing and editing and fixing and rewriting is hard work, don’t think it is easy.