A Project or Hobby of mine that was inspired by a book

Wow. This is a challenging one, because usually I seek books about my hobbies. And I’m interested in just about anything. I’ll go through phases of reading. Once year, it was all books about Mathematics and Mathematicians. It did not encourage to me to do more math, but it was interesting to read about. Books don’t necessarily inspire hobbies, but they do inspire obsessions.

When I was young, I loved the Harriet the Spy books, so I did try to copy her. I stayed with my grandmother every summer for about a week in a very small slow paced town in NC. I was bored. Sitting around in the summer heat in NC, with no air-conditioner just rickety fans blowing hot air around. Not much in the way of TV. No cable, three stations with reception, and we had to be sit there and be quiet in the afternoons while my grandmother watched The Guiding Light and The Young and the Restless.  For some reason, I got it in my head that I could spy on people like Harriet so I made journals  of the neighbors coming and goings, and came up with elaborate plots about who they ‘really’ were and what they were involved in. I didn’t discover any great secrets.

There was a whole series of books called Ghosts of North Carolina, if I remember correctly. They probably aren’t around anymore. Anyway, each book had a list of locations in NC that were said to be haunted complete with ‘real’ photos of ghosts. So, on another slow summer with my grandmother I decided I’d be a paranormal investigator. Nothing much happened except scaring the crap out of my younger sister. 

I do love Bill Bryson’s books. He’s a travel writer, and it does influence my love of travel. His books are funny but really packed with information. A Walk in the Woods about walking the Appalachian Trail is wonderful. And he has another book, Notes from a Small Island, that really makes me want to go to Australia one of these days.

I’m also blogging at Coffee Time Romance today, celebrating my series and upcoming release. So if you have a moment, come by and drop a comment about your favorite alien species.