A new month means a new @yourtop3 contest over on the Steem platform. And what a wicked cool topic it is! This time, we get to pick our top 3 favorite authors. Yep, just three.

And I thought it was tough picking my top 3 favorite holiday movie last month…

via GIPHY

I won’t even attempt to list all my contenders like I did last month, since I’d like to finish this before the next decade is over contest ends later today in a few hours (yes, this took me a ridiculously long time to put together, since my muse decided to take a holiday vacation and those troublesome twins Foggy & Groggy decided to visit me in her absence). And while I’ve upvoted and resteemed all the other entries so far, I haven’t actually read one yet (but still plan/hope to) because I just knew that I’d change my mind about a bazillion more times after seeing what I’m sure are some wicked awesomesauce choices from everyone else.

As I was agonizing over how to choose, I also happened to be multi-tasking (per usual) on Twitter and saw an author quote that I’d used in one of my quotos a few years ago, and realized that would be a great way to narrow the playing field. From that much smaller group, I picked the authors who created worlds than spanned across a series of books – worlds that I’ve returned to many times over the years.

So now without further wailing and gnashing of teeth, I present to you my choices.

My Top 3 Favorite Authors

Nomination 1 – Jim Butcher

 

 
REASON

This was actually the first name that sprang to mind, thanks to a conversation just before Christmas with @plantstoplanks. On the 19th (yes, I scrolled back to find the date…lol), we were both bemoaning the fact that it was taking so long for the next book in our respective beloved series to come out. Kid you not, Katie – on the 21st, I got this in my email! 😊

I discovered the Dresden Files funnily enough thanks to the short-lived television series back in 2007. It wasn’t long after watching the first couple episodes that I bought the Storm Front paperback, and for an all too brief period of time, I had a bunch of gloriously geeky and magical books to catch up on. Then after White Night (and yes, the titles in this series are all “two words, each with the same number of letters“), I had to be patient in between releases, but as they were coming out about once every year, it wasn’t too terribly painful.

His last release, Skin Game, was in 2015.

via GIPHY

It’s easy to forgive the delay though, especially since he writes the way I want to write (which is why I fire up his YouTube talks or scroll through his LiveJournal posts any time I need writing inspiration), and this series made me realize that Urban Fantasy was my preferred genre. I mean, how could you not love a story about a guy in modern day Chicago who advertises in the yellow pages as, “Wizard for Hire”?

And as I mentioned, here’s one of my quotos (my photo with his quote)…

 
 

Nomination 2 – J. K. Rowling

 

 
REASON

I was first introduced to the world of Harry Potter early on. The first book was published in the UK the year our son was born, but wasn’t released here across the pond until 1998 through the Scholastic Book Club. One of the perks I had at that time as a daycare provider for my college roommate’s kids, was the ability to order from that beloved public school tradition. Since she worked in a local school system, she’d bring home an extra “magazine” for me so I could place an order. It’s one of the reasons it’s one of the only series I could afford to have completely in hardcover. Even though I only bought the first three or four through the school thing (my job ended when her kids started school), later on as a homeschooler, I was able to attend some local Warehouse Sales in Maine to buy one or two more at book club price (as well as some related paperback titles like Fantastic Beasts).

I remember that I literally couldn’t put that first book down (even moreso than usual…lol), and I’ve been a fan ever since. While I don’t consider myself a Potterhead, I will admit that we did a Harry Potter birthday for the eldest when she was still in single digits, complete with a Quidditch birthday game for her and her Brownie troop birthday guests. In fact, it was at that party that I was asked to be a Girl Scout leader, so thanks for the inadvertent assist, JK! We also had special family outings to the films as they were released. And since my birthday is a mere two days before J.K. and Harry, hubby & the kids bought me the final book in the series for my 42nd (a number that requires me to tip my hat to another favorite author who was almost my third choice) birthday, and gave me the “day off from mothering” so I could read as much as I wanted.

Yes, I read all 784 pages that same day, and when I was done…

via GIPHY

Another one of my quotos…

 
 

Nomination 3 – Sir Terry Pratchett

 

 
REASON

I can’t recall how I first heard about Sir Terry, but I have fond memories of blazing through the first couple dozen of the DiscWorld series during the times I manned the Tupperware kiosk at our local mall when our youngest was little (yes, I did a stint as a Tupperware Lady… 😂 ). It’s not often a book makes me laugh out loud, especially in a public place, but these stories had me chuckling so often that the guy at the next kiosk (who was a wicked sweetheart) came over to find out what I was reading.

I also remember being over the moon when I heard about his collab with Neil Gaiman (who was also tied for this spot on my list) on the book, Good Omens. But then hearing about his early-onset Alzheimer’s news in late 2007 was particularly heart-pokey for me, as my father was only 68 when he was diagnosed, and Sir Terry’s announcement came about the same time as the six year anniversary of my dad’s passing on December 31st 2001.

When we were downsizing in 2011 to get ready to move into our camper, I made the tough choice to donate almost all my Discworld paperbacks to either our local library or Goodwill (I was too busy pouting packing to recall what pile they ended up in). The kids requested we keep a handful (like Reaper Man and Wee Free Men), and I promised myself I’d eventually replace them all with the UK black covers. While I haven’t actually started, I still plan to someday have a complete set of stories about that “flat, circular world which sits on the back of four elephants, which stand on the back of a giant star turtle.”

via GIPHY

Oh, and have no fear – Sir Pratchett still lives on ‘in the clacks‘ on my WordPress site (click HERE to check it out), as well as many others, thanks to this plugin created by Nick Cernis –

GNU Terry Pratchett

From Going Postal:
“We keep that name moving in the Overhead,” he said, and it seemed to Princess that the wind in the shutter arrays above her blew more forlornly, and the everlasting clicking of the shutters grew more urgent. “He’d never have wanted to go home. He was a real linesman. His name is in the code, in the wind in the rigging and the shutters. Haven’t you ever heard the saying: ‘A man’s not dead while his name is still spoken’?”
What does the GNU stand for?

In Going Postal, the G means that the message should be passed on, the N means “Not Logged”, and the U means that it should be turned around at the end of the line.

And here’s one of my Pratchett quotos…

I also wanted to include this final quoto, even though neither the photo or the quote are mine – however some years back, after seeing a version of this on social media without the photographer being credited, I decided to put this one together.

 
 

There are my choices! And while the contest prizes are limited to bloggers on the Steem blockchain, I figure there are lots of bloggers out there who might want to share their faves too. Instead of offering crypto prizes like the @yourtop3 crew, I thought I’d offer a little social media exposure instead.

So if anyone wants to jump aboard and share your Top 3 Favorite Authors, please feel free to drop a link to your own post (no time limit) in my comment section (along with your Twitter handle, if you have one), and I’ll do my best to take a peek and give it a tweet!

Lastly, a big thank you to the awesomesauce peeps behind this monthly crypto contest, with a special thank you to reining champion @rentmoney for offering incentive to knock him off his throne! 2020 is going to be extra fun with the addition of the Champions League to the monthly contest – you guys and gals ROCK!

via GIPHY

Thanks for stopping by!

My posts may occasionally contain affiliate links. If you click through,
I might get a wicked small commission, with no extra cost to you.

Blog graphics created on Canva
My photographs are taken with my trusty Nikon,
sometimes utilizing my handy dandy tripod.

All words and images are mine (unless otherwise indicated),
and can sometimes also be found on my various social media sites.
Speaking of witch which…

I have one billion many homes on the interwebz.
Here are a few…

• Smoke Blog ~ Traci York
• Steemit Blog ~ Traci York
• WordPress Blog ~ Traci York
• Facebook ~ Traci Cavanaugh York
• Facebook Page ~ Traci York, Writer
• Instagram ~ traciyork_aka_internetg33k
• Pinterest ~ Traci York, Writer
• Twitter ~ @TraciYorkWriter
• My Weku Blog ~ Traci York
• YouTube ~ InternetGeek
• Ello ~ @traciyork