Something which I have a great love for is: reading.

Being born to immigrant parents, I learned to speak English in school.  I used reading anything I could get my hands on from the local library, to help me conquer the language.

My passion for reading increased as a teen, where I started to write my own stories, after being inspired by authors like Robin Klein, S.E. Hinton and Lucy Maud Montgomery. As I got older, my tastes broadened and I fell in love with classical literature, horror and science fiction.  Authors like Steven King, Paulo Coelho, Christian Jacq, Anne Rice, Raymond E Feist and Janny Wurts  encouraged me to get back to writing because their words touched me and reignited the creative spark I had been suppressing.

I’m always reading several books at a time and love to open my inspiration to new ideas whether they be fiction or non fiction. This is why I have been puzzled when I meet people who say they never read.  I find that weird…mainly because I love to read for fun as well as for knowledge.  I find reading a great self educator and feel it can help writers hone their craft or encourage them to try our new genres or styles of writing.

Whatever I am reading all I want is to get “something” out of it and even if I dislike the book itself – at least I learned that!