Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

In large part our imaginations are formed by the imaginations of others before us.  Our imaginations differ greatly and to help expand we need to join others' imaginations.  To see the world, or a world, differently than how we view it ourselves is imaginative exploration at its finest, the fastest way to grow in ideas and understanding.  While thinking about this, there a 3 authors/writers that come to mind above any others, authors that have opened my imagination and intrigue, dragged me into their worlds to lose track of time for hours and hours without being able to put their books down.  These authors:

1. R.A. Salvatore and his New York Times Best-Seller The Legend of Drizzt
   
2. J.R.R. Tolkien and his New York Times Best-Seller The Lord of the Rings
   
3.  J.K. Rowling and her New York Times Best-Seller Harry Potter

These stories each bring an amazing complexity and air of adventure that are unforgettable.  I was introduced first to The Hobbit, the prequel to the future trilogy The Lord of the Rings while in 5th grade.  I read them all a few times before listening to my mom read Harry Potter to my siblings.  I remember catching bits and pieces of the story and wondering what the story was about; all I ever heard my mother read was about magical beasts and magic and danger.  It caught my attention and when I started reading the books I couldn't put them down.

These first two series really started to draw me into the fantasy/adventure realm of imagination.  R.A. Salvatore's The Legend of Drizzt, though, takes the cake.  I only have the first 20 books in the lengthy series (too few, I know) but I have read and reread them multiple times.  I don't think it would ever matter how many times I read them; each time I pick them up again I am drawn into the story just as much...so much so that I cannot put them down.  I find myself locked in the bathroom to not disturb others as I read straight through the night because I'm unable to leave the characters in their adventures.  Their adventures become mine.  R.A. Salvatore's writing is so intense, so detailed, so full of emotion and life that I feel, while reading, that I am reading about real people in a far off world.  I have never wanted a book to turn into a Hollywood movie as badly as I have for this book, though at the same time I would be hesitant because the acting would have to be perfect to adequately portray these complex characters.

So, this post is to give credit where credit is due.  Now, I do wish to clarify that my story is my own; no part of it is based off of characters, events, or places of any other story or book.  But these stories that gave life to my imagination helped me to grow my imagination in a way that I was able to create something unique and publish it...essentially bringing my own story to life.  So thank you R.A. Salvatore, J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling.

Forever a fan.

**The pictures are not mine but belong to those who made them.**