Guest Post by Allie Burke

Why Our Favorite Books (and Authors)

Inspire Us to Be Better Humans

by Allie Burke

When we come in contact with a character we absolutely love, or, comparatively, do not love, it inspires us to experience the personal growth we all – consciously or not – seek. Something that is very hard for those who do not read fiction regularly is that the characters that we “meet” are entirely real to us (because they don’t read) because our interactions with them – through fiction, the love or the hate or the fear or the wonder that we feel as we read of their trials – is entirely real to us.

I recently read a book with a protagonist that I never, ever wanted to be like, mostly because she was impulsive and extremely unintelligent in that, throughout the entire course of the book, she never for one moment stopped to think. And because the author, through literature, afforded me the opportunity to get into her head and unconsciously document every wrong move she ever made, I will always carry that with me. As sure as I am tomorrow that I never want to repeat That Painfully Obvious Mistake my friend made the other day, I will be sure to remember this character’s exaggerated flaws and not to repeat her mistakes when making my own decisions. Because of her and her author, I will remember not to be stupid.

Contrastingly, I’ve never met a genuine character in any of the books by Sarah Addison Allen that I didn’t fall in love with. Her characters are generally good humans with positive intentions and solid ambitions. And when I think of the woman who wrote these books, got diagnosed with cancer, beat cancer, and then wrote another book that I love, well. I am inspired.

I want to be able to call certain authors public figures and even celebrities in their own right, especially YA authors. I look at Maggie Stiefvater, and if there is anyone in the world I could be in that moment, or any moment really, it would be her. She is a bestselling author and an artist and a mom and a wife and a racecar driver and a musician and she YouTubes about why writing about eighteen year old girls who get pregnant is a bad idea and she has goats for pets. She is beautiful and she is positive and she is a role model and even in my (almost) twenty-eight years, she, through literature, inspires me to be a better human.

There are a lot of authors like that. And their books. But that’s the thing with books.

They are powerful.

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About Allie

An American novelist from Burbank, California, Allie Burke writes books she can’t find in the bookstore. Having been recognized as writing a “kickass book that defies the genre it’s in”, Allie writes with a prose that has been labeled poetic and ethereal.

Her life is a beautiful disaster, flowered with the harrowing existence of inherited eccentricity, a murderous family history, a faithful literature addiction, and the intricate darkness of true love. These are the enchanting experiences that inspire Allie’s fairytales.

From some coffee shop in Los Angeles, she is working on her next novel, Paper Souls.
Visit Allie at http://allieburke.wordpress.com

Allie's Books:

The Enchanters Series

Jane, Book 0.5

Jane

I slip my hand into hers, pulling myself up. She does not clench or flinch. Her tiny figure is deceiving.She hugs me. She grasps my shoulders tight, holding me fiercely in front of her eyes as if, from any other distance, she may miss something. She smiles at me.“Hey,” she says, her melodic voice singing that beautiful song I’ve heard a thousand times before. “I missed you.”

Set at a time before Violet Midnight (book one of The Enchanters) takes place, “Jane” brings to light a short telling of Jane Wildes’ friendship with the woman she cherishes the most. Through her own experiences, Jane watches over her, protects her, even when she is out of sight, and, reach.

Violet Midnight, Book One

Coming May 1, 2014 from Booktrope Editions

Look into the world of the Enchanters, where water has a sense of humor, trees scare people, and love… is destiny.
Beautiful Jane is hovering at the edge of content in her life of solitude in the quiet town of Jasmyn Lake, but when her energy sends her on a journey to meet the man she has been dreaming about for months, she cannot resist. Meet sexy artist Elias, who moved to Hazel Grove, California to get away from the rain, his parents, and everything that was taken from him in Hayward, Washington. But he thinks he may be losing his mind when he starts seeing purple glitter in the air, the scent of rosemary is everywhere, and he is hearing a beautiful voice.
But all is not flowers and ease for the newly joined couple. With a woman who prefers night to day and a man with heartache from his past, they must learn how to create their own new world with grace and the occasional water feature. Written with humor and intensity, book one of the three part trilogy will leave you yearning for more and daydreaming shades of purple.

Ever – Short Story, Book 1.5

Ever

A silent moment passed before she nodded her head. “I’ve never seen him like that,” she said absently. “Ever.”
Set on a quiet night which takes place just before the Epilogue in Violet Midnight (book one of The Enchanters trilogy), Ever explores the existence of true love, destiny, guilt, sorrow, and goodbyes in a world that is as secluded as a small coven of vampires and is as magical as the luminous colors that explode from the hearts of its Enchanters.
Following a night wrecked with death, loss, and more than one unnatural disaster, Elias and Jane must learn to survive, starting with each other. And ending… with him.

Emerald Destiny, Book Two

Coming Late Spring 2014 from Booktrope Editions

The night was completely calm now, cool and slightly breezy, no trace of the earlier storm. The rain had been vicious, cutting through his skin like glass, his heart shattering as the shards poured into him from the sky. Not even Cameron’s polished influence could muster a storm like that, one that drained his energy until he blacked out of his head. It had only ever rained like that a handful of times since Evan could remember, but every time it did, she was somewhere in the woods, crying. She said she didn’t remember him. Abby was a lot of things, but never a liar. That is, until tonight.
Nineteen year old Evan spends his time in the woods of Dare Forest, as close to her as he can be, the girl that for fourteen years, his heart has ached for. The same girl that everyone around him forbids him to love.
Abby’s nights are crowded between her Enchanter life, her dreading nightmares, and her enduring will to save her brother from his own inner darkness. But when Evan speaks to her for the first time in fourteen years, she finds she can no longer endure the sorrow crowding her world.
Countless times before them, the union between a Brooks woman and a Reed man has failed. The love in their hearts strives to be together forever, but will their destinies break them apart?

Amber Passion, Book Three

Coming Summer 2014 from Booktrope Editions

Daniel blinked hard, consciously widening his eyes to hold onto himself. That soft, warm, compassionate voice of hers was so beautiful. He was having trouble concentrating. Breathing. Driving.
“I will,” Daniel admitted. “Scare you. Sometime.”
With Abby out of town, the twin sister that existed as the whole of his soul, his soul for nineteen years before this night, Abby, depressed, ill, pregnant Abby, in the hands of her new husband and fourteen hours away, on an impulse Daniel visits Hazel Grove and for the second time experiences the sun shining in the middle of the night.
But this is a sun with a different name. A sun with blonde hair and an orange aura and with a bright light that scared the darkness right out of Daniel Linden. He was terrified. Terrified because, the darkness, that blackness that had been his heart for the duration of his life, was… lost. He was lost. Lost, and conquered. By passion. By love. Conquered, by Claire Dalton. Claire. The real Claire.
Fall into the very last story of The Enchanters to discover what else may be lost, who will lose themselves and what they may find, and who… will come back.

Stand-Alones

The Sandman, Short Story