Willa Okati: Five Faves

After doing my Five Faves for Jessewave I decided to ask some of the best writers out there in Gay Romance land to pick five. I asked these authors what five books got them started writing OR were their absolute favorite reads when they started out and then I asked them what their favorite book was that THEY had written and WHY. So here is Willa Okati to whom I apologize for being so late in getting this up. I am a bad pig.

Willa Okati ~ Lovers, Dreamers, And Me
From: Loose Id

From the moment this story took shape in my head, I knew it was going to be one of my favorites I’d ever written — and indeed it has turned out to be the favorite. I’ve never had another writing experience like it before or since, where the story and the characters and setting all clicked into place and simply…flowed. Every now and then I’ll have a moment during the writing of a book where I’ll feel that sense of synchronicity and contentment. With Lovers, Dreamers and Me it was very like living a dream. I don’t know where that sense of internal enchantment came from, and I’ve spent a while trying to recapture it only to find you can’t force lightning to strike twice. You can only coax it toward you and see if it’ll come to your hand.

I’m glad it struck that once.

There are other books I’ve loved more. But I think the following five are the ones that have influenced me most deeply as a writer, and they’re often the ones I return to time and again for comfort reading, for inspiration, and to remind myself that I can do better and should never stop aspiring to improve with each story.

1. Elizabeth Von Arnim ~ Enchanted April As I understand, this was fairly obscure among Von Arnim’s other works. I’d no idea of it. Some college friends and I rented the VHS to watch one weeknight. For the first ten minutes, I was bored. Then, I was enraptured. Remember how you could watch a VHS tape until you wore it out? I bought one and did that very thing. The sense of unexpected magic and escape from the ordinary has been a huge theme in my writing, and I think it will continue to be.

2. Pablo Neruda ~ 100 Love Sonnets I keep this book at hand and flip through it at least daily. The earthiness and ripe sensuality of Neruda’s words are like milk and honey. Reading them is like overhearing lovers whispering secrets to each other. They give me shivers and keep me dreaming of happily, sensually ever after. ***Teddypig ~ Not In eBook***

3. Neil Gaiman ~ The Sandman This was my first love as a post-collegiate “adult”, living on my own for the first time. All growed up and tumbling headlong into Gaiman’s amazing, dark, twisted world, with the all the great themes of humanity (and anthropomorphic personifications thereof). I cried over “The Sound of Her Wings”, shivered at the Grey Ladies, and learned to respect Tricksters — or at least never turn my back on them. In anything dark that I write, Gaiman’s Morpheus has at least some drop of subconscious influence. ***Teddypig ~ Not In eBook***

4. Terry Pratchett ~ Soul Music Soul Music, the Discworld — pack my bags and I’m there. Terry Pratchett’s sublime sense of the comical and ridiculous and absurd paired with a keen insight into universal humanity turns the most absurd of concepts into the most delicious of stories. Not to mention I never read one of his books without dissolving into giggles, even if it’s the fifth re-read. There’s always something new. Pratchett has had a huge influence on the side of me that loves to write comedy and to produce twists and quirks.

5. William Shakespeare ~ Much Adoe About Nothing This is it. The one. The work that first made me want to try and write professionally. I didn’t know it at first, though. I was a college student taking classes I hated, bored absolutely out of my mind, idly translating Shakespeare into modern English. (Purists, you may cringe. In retrospect, I sure as hell do.) But the more involved I became with this story, the more I saw in it. The depths and layers and cleverness of wit all woven together took my breath away once I saw them clearly. They still do. ***Teddypig ~ Free eBook! Link goes to Project Gutenberg.***

And I thought to myself…maybe I should give it a try…

Thanks for doing this — it’s been really interesting seeing what influences writers and inspires them too.
Willa

Tags: Five Faves, WIlla Okati