Nardpuncher
Rear Admiral
an odd one to start with, but at least not many can claim this one:
Dreams of the Raven
found it at a yard sale, and had become a fan of TOS when NBC was showing it syndicated after school every day (4pm) in the late 80s (I was in grade school at the time). Saw this book, chewed through it, and then pretty much bought every TOS book out there through used book stores and occasionally new. Big influence in my (so far) lifelong interest in reading.
Funny...that was my 2nd book, the first one being the one published two months before, Deep Domain. I wonder why I ever read another book what with that being my first.