Lloyd Alexander- If it were up to me, his Prydain Chronicles would be required reading for every middle school student. The books are short and simple, yet profound and emotional. You get the sense that Mr. Alexander knows very much about human life. I've been fortunate enough to exchange several letters with Mr. Alexander and even in everyday correspondence he always knows the exact right word for the moment.

C.S. Lewis - Another great author and great Christian, C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia is one of the most well known fantasy series and Christian allegories. His vision of heaven in The Last Battle heavily influenced my personal religious thought.

J.R.R. Tolkien- No list of recommended authors would be complete without this fantasy heavyweight. A linguist by training, Tolkien created incredibly detailed worlds. His work can be thick at times, but his conceptions of mythical races and their roles in society have influenced thousands of novels in the last half century.

Wil Radcliffe- Wil is the author of Noggle Stones- an original story that is soon to be turned into a board game! Wil is always coming up with creative ideas for marketing and promotion, and has a weekly column on the trials of writing and promotion. Don't let the fact that he has frequent conversations with an imaginary goblin fool you- he's actually quite a smart guy!

J.K. Rowling- Chances are you've heard of her before as for periods of time her books have outsold the Bible. Her talent lies in the fact that she can take an imaginary world and make it so darn believable! Her young witches and wizards act exactly the same way that young boys and girls act, and her inventions like Quidditch and Berty Bots Every Flavor Beans help to flesh out her world.

Victoria Randall- Victoria is the author of The Ring of the Dark Elves, a modern retelling of the Norse myth. She has a way of drawing the reader completely into a scene. She is a master at telling the story of the 'tragic hero.' Definitely someone to keep your eye on in the future.

Garth Nix- One thing I like about this Australian writer is that although his publishers have created this amazing official page, he still maintains his own  personal page where he is quite informal. His Abhorsen trilogy is quite creative. The Abhorsen is a special necromancer who must maintain the porous border between life and death. And there's plenty of spirits waiting to cross...

Terry Brooks- Mr. Brooks has been writing the Shannara series for almost thirty years now. I devoured these books when I was young, and they played a large formative role in the development of many of my ideas and theories. Mr. Brooks has a copy of DreamQuest. We'll see what he thinks!

David Blalock- David is the author of the Thran Chronicles, a series of six stories detailing the world of the Atlantean Empire in the years where magic ruled. If you like intertwined plotlines with multiple interested parties, be sure to check him out.

Dan Brown- Mr. Brown's key fault is that he tries to pass his fiction off as fact. This wouldn't be so much of a problem if he didn't craft his stories to fit his preconceived notions and throw out data that didn't fit, no matter how much evidence supported it. There is far more evidence that the Priory of Sion was a hoax crafted in the 1950s than that Jesus fathered a dynasty. Regardless, the man can craft a story. He pulls in readers with some of the strongest hooks I've ever seen. Study his technique to learn how to keep readers up all night reading your books.

Michael Crichton- What I love about Crichton is the fact that he puts a lot of effort into making plotlines with a believable scientific basis. Jurassic Park brought dinosaurs back by taking their DNA from mosquitoes trapped in Amber who had sucked dinosaurs' blood. Much better than the majority of Hollywood offerings who use 'gene therapy', 'DNA technology', or 'Radiation' to accomplish things that those agents have nothing to do with!