My earliest obsession was Anne McCafferey’s Pern series. I started with Menolly’s story and lived in all of them eventually for years. When I need to find myself again, the first books I reach for are these.
That said, my personality is probably mostly based on the many works of Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels. I read everything she wrote. I re-read my favorites so much that I can no longer read them because my brain knows the words too well and refuses to process them anymore.
My brother may have had quite an influence over some of my earliest tv and movie obsessions because he is 4 years older than I and always had control over the tv! GI Joe (Duke and Scarlett forever), A Team (Amy? and maybe umm I can’t remember his name now. The funny one 😉 ).
Star Wars – interestingly, considering what a total shipper I am, I never was into the romance options in Star Wars (not that there were many at the time of the original trilogy!). But I was all in on the franchise.
Scarecrow and Mrs King! I actually think this was a very important turning point for me. The last season of this show was truncated both by the fact that it was going to be canceled and because the lead heroine was being treated for cancer. Years later I found out there were communities online dedicated to the show and … more importantly… to reimagining the sad failure of the last season.
Right on the trail of that discovery, I fell in love with Firefly the tv series which was also canceled prematurely.
Harry Potter was the first book series that I truly fell in love with since I was a child and I love it so much I cannot speak about it with any sort of a critical eye. Don’t come for Harry.
I read the entire Lord of the Rings series one long weekend in Jr. High. It was the first book that I sobbed while reading. RIP Boromir.
I was lucky enough to have two beautifully adaptations of Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility in my general youth. Though I’d already read the books, I went back and re-read and did a better job picking up on the humor which originally I didn’t really process.
I had a Psych and Law & Order: Criminal Intent obsession for a time, Sherlock (BBC), Being Human (BBC) and (weirdly) a specific pairing in The Walking Dead. I don’t usually enter into a love for something when I know it’s doomed, but I thought.. .maybe it would last a moment longer than it did and maybe end more epic like and less really really dumb.
I found Doctor Who late and found it entertaining and humorous and innovative… a good bingeworthy thing. But then… something happened. The 11th regeneration of Doctor Who was coming to an end and they added in the character of Clara and… it might as well have been an actual love affair. I fell hard and fast for this ship and devoted my all. And… though it all sort of worked out in the end, the comedy of errors of actors leaving, new actors coming in with different promises, other actors leaving, coming back, romance completely invalidated and then finally validated in a way that should have made it all better… I still think about it as if I had an actual loss.
I was and am sick and tired of giving my heart over to the whims of fate and studio budgeting. Though I understand all the business of it, I decided I felt so strongly about what I wanted to see in the world that I needed to write it myself. The big question becomes, as I endeavor to create a successful career doing just that, is if anyone else wants to read it!
Ada Bright 