Birthdays: Wilkie Collins (1824), Storm Jameson (1891), Dennis Wheatley (1897), Charles Tomlinson (1927), Alexandra Ripley (1934), Terry Brooks (1944)Quote:

“I have always held the old-fashioned opinion that the primary object of work of fiction should be to tell a story.” – Wilkie Collins

“I still approach each book with the same basic plan in mind: to put some people under severe stress and see how they hold up.” – Terry Brooks

William Wilkie Collins was an English novelist and playwright known especially for The Woman in White, and for The Moonstone, which has been proposed as the first modern English detective novel.

Dennis Yeats Wheatley was an English writer whose prolific output of thrillers and occult novels made him one of the world’s best-selling authors from the 1930s through the 1960s. His Gregory Sallust series was one of the main inspirations for Ian Fleming’s James Bond stories.

Alexandra Ripley was an American writer best known as the author of Scarlett, written as a sequel to Gone with the Wind. Her first novel was Who’s the Lady in the President’s Bed?. Charleston, her first historical novel, was a bestseller, as were her next books On Leaving Charleston, The Time Returns, and New Orleans Legacy.

I adore Terry Brooks books. Especially his “Shannara” series. Found out though that while I can read them, I can’t handle watching the series. However his “Magic Kingdom for Sale/Sold” is and will always be one of my favorite fantasy books.