Dianna Wynne Jones, author of Howl's Moving Castle, The Crestomanci novels, and many more, died this Saturday.
To say this is upsetting news would be an understatement of her books' effect on me as a writer and a person. I found Dianna's books when I was a library page, just branching out from Xanth and the Forgotten Realms, to find out what YA fiction was all about. On the whole I remember being disappointed.
Until I picked up Charmed Life. That twisty, wonderfully weird book showed me another side of fantasy that has influenced me and my work to this day. I can see elements of it whenever I pick up a pen and dive into one of my own weirdly wonderful worlds.
I did not pick up Howl's Moving Castle until much later, but it renewed my interest, forgotten like so many things from my childhood, in Ms. Jones' books.
It's difficult to know how one is supposed to act, having never met the woman or corresponded in any way, but every single person who read one of her books got to know her at least a little bit, and I for one will miss her wit and I know the community as a whole will do the same.
Is it odd, that my first thought was, I wish she'd had just one more match?
No comments:
Post a Comment