What impact did Joe Dever have on your life?

[simkn]

What impact did Joe Dever have on your life?

I credit him for my love of books.

You can read the story of how he impacted me and my friend/colleague here: A Tribute to Joe Dever

Please feel free to share your own story!

[jdubs1211]

He definitely helped me rediscover my love of choosing my own path in books. When I was really young, I was very much into the "Choose Your Own Adventure" book series.As I got older into my teen years, I got into rpg video games. One day I was in a book store and I saw "Flight from the Dark" and was hooked. I can genuinely credit him with getting me more back into reading books. I loved how accessible he made himself to his fans on social media. It is not often that people you really admire give you such access.

[simkn]

I started with CYOA as well.

I agree that Joe Dever was really great to his fans!

[shinreizen]

I credit him for making me addicted to Lone Wolf gamebooks and made me search them at secondhand bookshops all over the country in the 90's.

Joe Dever taught me English and some Maths indirectly, and for that I'm ever grateful to him.

[greg]

I was already reading gamebooks, thanks to Fighting Fantasy, but I really came to appreciate the continuity in Lone Wolf books.

When I came to meet him at his house for a Battleday, it made me realise that writers, no matter how cool they seemed, were just ordinary people, with ordinary families. I think it made me realise that I could be a writer one day too. And I was very proud to write Lone Wolf material for Mongoose's magazine, many years later.

[GhostofLandar]

Although I started reading Lone Wolf before my father's passing, following this character (being this character) helped me cope with being a young man without (though family members would step in) a mentor or father. It also, coincidentally, was more well-written than he got credit for, at least in its use of words. I picked up so many non-arms related words and it actually gave me an advantage to read something so immediately accessible and vivid. I read more adult works, of course, but there was something about it that imprinted words, phrases and sentence complexity in my mind more firmly than other books. While I love Lord of the Rings, Magnamund is probably my first fantasy love. It's sad to me that so many others are into Westeros or other worlds that I find to be somewhat dim compared to the bright light of creativity, coherence and innovation in Joe's works.

But there's still time...