Today I’m hosting guest blogger Michael Cash, who is a twenty something freelance writer and internet consultant residing in western Michigan. When he’s not coaching people out of 1990s era web practices, amateur astronomy and hiking take up his time. A completely random fact about Michael is that he used to “ghost hunt” as a youngster. Here’s what he has to say:
Few fantasy writers can manage to release a sterling hit to the public early in their life. Often times, even the greatest fantasy writers of today spent a great deal of time doing things other than writing in order to subsist. It can take twenty years or more in order for the most talented writers to produce a critically acclaimed masterpiece that is worthy of funding a living for the writer. Some of the most prolific writers of the fantasy genre today have spent time as dishwashers or have worked at laundromats in order to scrounge together a living. Here are just a few big name authors who have managed to become critically acclaimed, leaving behind odd jobs and low paying, obscure positions.
Stephen King simply cannot avoid any sort of list of fantasy writers, he is that prolific. In 1966, he attended Maine University, where he eventually met his wife. Stephen King left college with a certificate allowing him to teach high school classes, but because he was not able to find a teaching position immediately, he quickly turned to his short stories in order to supplement his income. In the fall of 1971 Stephen King received a teaching position at Hampden Academy in Maine.
George R. R. Martin is a well established fantasy writer who has been writing short stories since the 1970s. Perhaps his best known writing is called “A Song of Fire and Ice”, and includes four books which have been released thus far, with three more books planned to be released in the series. He first began writing when he was in grade school, selling self written monster stories to friends in his class for a few pennies each. Martin has a Masters Degree in Journalism, and has worked as an instructor in journalism. Martin also helped direct chess tournaments for three years in the mid seventies. Throughout the 1970s, Martin published several short stories, and won a few Hugo and Nebula awards for some of his short stories published in the late seventies. It was not until 1979 that Martin became a full time writer. During the 1980s, Martin continued writing, but also moved into different mediums, most specifically the television industry. He wrote a good deal of the Beauty and the Beast television show which was produced in the late eighties, as well as some of the new Twilight Zone episodes which were released in the mid eighties.
One of the lesser known fantasy authors who has nonetheless remained quite influential within the genre is Diane Wynne Jones. She was born in 1934, and has published dozens of books, compilations, and short stories which tell classic fantasy tales with bizarre and intriguing twists. She attended college classes at St. Anne’s College, where notable classic fantasy authors including C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien gave lectures at the time. Her writing career did not officially begin until 1965, and before that she was a busy mother of three children. In addition to over forty books written since the early 1970s, Jones has also written plays which have most often been performed in the London Arts Theatre. Perhaps the most well known series which she has written is called the Chrestomanci series. The first story within this series, called “Charmed Life”, won the Guardian Award for Children’s Books when it was published in 1977. Her book titled, “Howl’s Moving Castle” was turned into an animated movie by the Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki.