S. A. Crow
- Jul 10
- 2 min read

"The Book That Changed My Life: Jacquie Gordon's Influence on My Writing"

I'm pretty sure that I picked up Give Me One Wish by Jacquie Gordon at a secondhand store. Passing a bookstore was almost unheard of on both sides of my family, so from an early age, the written word often surrounded me. I'm sure that this was my first sudo-biographical memoir novel, and it left a lasting impact on me not only as a person but also as an author.

The Authors who inspired me blog series is a way for me to share the authors and books that shaped my writing style, storytelling approach, and my personal life.

Studying literary influences can benefit aspiring writers in many ways, such as developing skills, finding their voice, building a foundation, and overcoming writer's block.

Encounter "Give Me One Wish"

I don't remember how I picked up this book or how it ended up in my collection until I lent it to a friend and lost it forever. But I do remember what I learned from this novel. I hadn't known about the disease before, but it made me realize how devastating it would be for a parent to be told that their child will die at a certain age because no one with the disease has lived longer than that. The fact that her daughter not only lived longer than anyone with but she lived life in her terms.

The other thing I learned was about The Rocky Horror Picture Show. For those who haven't had this right of passage here is a bit about it. The movie was made 1975 as a independent musical comedy horror film produced by Lou Adler and Michael White. Directed by Jim Sharman. Richard O'Brien was living as an unemployed actor in London during the early 1970s. He wrote most of The Rocky Horror Show during one winter just to occupy himself. Initial reception was extremely negative, but it soon became a hit as a midnight movie, when audiences began participating with the film at the Waverly Theater in New York City in 1976. Audience members returned to the cinemas frequently and talked back to the screen and began dressing as the characters, spawning similar performance groups across the United States. At almost the same time, fans in costume began performing alongside the film. This "shadow cast" mimed the actions on screen above and behind them, while lip-synching their characters' lines.~Wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rocky_Horror_Picture_Show