This post was originally published June 6th, 2012. While Bradbury actually died on June 5th, I didn’t actually post until after midnight.
The same day that I pass 25,000 words in writing my book, one of my favorite authors, Ray Bradbury, dies. It is interesting that I reach a (very minor) milestone the same day that Ray Bradbury reaches his last. “The Martian Chronicles” was one of the first books I ever read. I have a paperback copy almost as old as I am. The pages are yellowed and dog-eared, the spine is disintegrating and the cover art is fading into oblivion. It started a journey in reading for me that covered other giants of science fiction, including Heinlein, Asimov, Clark and Pournelle. It stirred my imagination, even though I already knew that the events of the “Martian Chronicles” were as much fantasy as the C.S. Lewis Narnian Chronicles I also read around that time.
How many books have I read? I have no idea. How many books have I loved and re-read? A small exclusive group, most of which are science fiction and fantasy – “Stranger in a Strange Land”, “The Lord of the Rings”, “The Chronicles of Narnia”, the Foundation Trilogy, the list goes on and on.
I loved losing myself in the imagined worlds of others so much that I want to bring that excitement to a new group of readers. I aspire to only a fraction of the greatness of the authors I have mentioned and if I reach that goal I will be truly blessed.
The world of sci-fi and fantasy will miss you, Ray Bradbury.