Who inspired you?

I was looking through Netflix’s offerings the other day and saw Robotech on the instant streaming offerings.  For those who don’t know, Robotech was old Japanese anime, brought to the USA in 1985 or so, and was on the early end of the transforming robots craze.

I remember racing home each day in grade school to see Robotech, and years later my parents bought me the first three or four novelizations for Christmas.  I think I read them all in two or three days.  The novels were done by two writers working under the name Jack McKinney, and they were decidedly more ‘grown up’ than the original after school cartoon.

Seeing that first episode of the Macross saga, in all its’ badly dubbed glory, brought back some memories, and is among the first sci-fi I remember reading.  Soon after, a friend of my grandpa’s (permanently) loaned me part of his old sci-fi collection, some of them first edition paperbacks.  Asimov’s Foundation trilogy, Doc Smith’s Lensman series, and a collection of short stories by Fred Saberhagen are my oldest sci-fi books.  I think of the writers I enjoy reading today and often look back at those that got me started and wonder if everyone has that ‘first’ author or book that sent them down the path that led them to read sci-fi, murder mysteries, or dystopian vampire alternate-history goth.  Whatever makes you happy!