F is for fantasy

Oh come on.  You can't expect me to do a blog challenge and NOT discuss my favorite genre to write in.  Well, I suppose you could but really.  If you didn't expect this, you don't know me very well.  *grin*

Fantasy is my strong point.  Let me clarify: high and epic fantasy are my strong points.  I'm okay with the urban fantasy bit.  I'm decent with science fiction.  But high fantasy and epic fantasy are my special favorites.  The world of Aleran gives testament to my love of the rolling epic fantasy series that have been written based all in one world.

I'm also a huge fan of faerie tales.  I'm doing my own collection of faerie tale rewrites.  I know that's also been done to death but it's something that I've felt passionate about for a while.  I don't necessarily like the Disney-fied faerie tales.  I think they're cute and have their HEA.  But...what about the ordinary, plain girls who want faerie tales?  What are we telling them?  That just because they're not drop dead gorgeous they can't have their dreams?  Yeah, I didn't think so.  Which is why I'm rewriting a bunch of faerie tales - to give them characters that are less than perfect for us to believe in.

I've read a lot of fantasy novels over the years.  My favorites - which also happen to span dozens of novels each - are Mercedes Lackey's books based on her world of Velgarth, Andre Norton's Witch World books, and Anne McCaffrey's Pern books.  Now, I know the Pern books technically are science fiction, but I love them a lot and they did inspire some of my fantasy novels.  I've got other favorites, of course, but these are my top three.

What about you?  What made you choose to write what you write, and who are your favorite authors in your own genre?