Favorite Authors
I loved the writing of Pat McManus growing up, his wildlife and hunting stories were always a treat to read and the hilarious situations he described always made me laugh. I grew up hunting and fishing in lower Michigan and while my adventurers couldn’t compare to MaManus’s experiences there is always something odd that happens in the outdoors. One year on the way to go deer hunting in Michigan’s Ontonogan County (a nine hour drive) my friend Dennis and I rolled our truck and trailer on some black ice. It totaled the truck and trailer both and although neither of us was hurt we were stranded just north of Claire. When I called my wife that night to report our situation she asked, “so you’re canceling the hunting trip right?” “Certainly not,” I was astonished at her assumption, “my dad and Bud are driving up a replacement truck as we speak, we will be back on the road in the morning.” It was a successful hunt that year, the 6 man camp killed 11 deer and forever after that season was called, “roll a truck shoot a buck.” Not Pat McManus quality adventure I’m sure, but hopefully in the ballpark.
One of the best books I ever read on writing was Stephan King’s, “On writing: A memoir of the Craft.” If you want to be an author read it. Solid and inspirational by an author that has literally written more books than the bible.
You would have to go back quite a few years to read one of my first favorite authors, Donald Hamilton. He wrote a series of books about a spy named Matt Helm, code name Eric. My favorite quote on his book jacket was something like “the toughest Agent to ever crush a Russian spy’s kidney with a crowbar.” How can you be any tougher than that? If you are into movie nostalgia you might remember a cheesy old movie from the sixties with Dean Martin playing Matt Helm, it was just horrible, trite and unrealistic and I kind of remember him swinging from a ceiling somehow.
I moved on to John McDonald and his Travis McGee series with his knight errand character living on a houseboat called “The Busted Flush.” Throw in Steven King and Dean Koonz and Harlan Coben and Eric Lustbader and a half a hundred more and you can see my reading list is not exactly limited.
I loved Science Fiction and Fantasy as a kid, mostly the old time authors like Asimov, Roger Zelany, and John Norman although he is so politically incorrect that I’m not even sure he could be published in this day and age. The Dave Duncan series I read a half a dozen times over the years and all the old Andre Norton books. Barbara Hambly was another favorite, her detailed descriptions of London life a hundred plus years ago and her characters are always first rate.
These days it’s John Sanford and Lee Child and some of the woman authors I especially like such as Lisa Jackson, Linda Howard, Sandra Brown and especially Janet Evanovich.
I read everything, I still have every Louis Lamour western he ever wrote and the complete set of Zane Grey novels.
Near Cadillac in Michigan where my wife and I live is a thrift store that sells paperbacks for a quarter and hard cover books for fifty cents, we stop there every week and load up on reading material.
