Golden Apples.

Golden Apples of the Sun by Ray Bradbury.

This book gave me my writing style and an ability to express myself via the written word.

In ‘The Foghorn’, the first short story, in just a few strokes of his pen, Bradbury paints the whole picture of humanity, offering a profound perspective on time, life, love and … well … you must read it yourself.

Each time I read The Foghorn, I feel as if I’m reading about something inside myself. Something I can’t quite comprehend or understand directly, save for feeling it through the lens and pen of Bradbury himself.

Whatever I am, whatever it is, lies inside the first few pages of a Ray Bradbury short story called The Foghorn.

UPDATE 06/06/2012 Ray Bradbury died today 🙁 Goodbye Ray. You will always be my favourite author. Thank you for the contribution you made to my life.

I sat in my car, listening. I couldn’t see the lighthouse or the light standing out in Lonesome
Bay. I could only hear the Horn, the Horn, the Horn. It sounded like the monster calling.

I sat there wishing there was something I could say.”
—
Some of you might recognise similarities in the way the above prose is written. Similarities with my own writing style?

That is because Ray Bradbury is my writing role model and has been since I was about 14 years old.

And no, of course I am not ever daring to say that my writing could ever match Bradbury’s but as he said himself, “You should write at least one short story a week” inferring that, at the end of the year, you’re bound to have at least one story you could be proud of … making the point that there is magic to be found, discovered, celebrated … in some of the writing we might produce in following his advice.

He regarded it as a craft, a skill to flex and hone.

And he said that other thing!

“I absolutely demand of you and everyone I know that they be widely read in every damn field there is; in every religion and every art form and don’t tell me you haven’t got time! There’s plenty of time. You need all of these cross-references. You never know when your head is going to use this fuel, this food for its purposes.”

There’s Beach right there. 🙂 Right there wrapped up in Bradbury’s passionate pastel coloured prose.