Reading and Writing

I am aware, at least intuitively, that my writing is influenced by what I have read. I have read a lot of books over the years. When I find a writer who writes what I enjoy, I tend to find everything I can that they wrote. I mainly read Victorian literature, fantasy and science fiction.

I find the Victorian literature gives me a good foundation in the psychology of characters. Fantasy and science fiction gives me themes to consider and think about. So, I use both characters and themes with a story plot when I write my fiction books. For my poetry books, I pick a theme and write 100 poems on that. I know my writing is strange because I am strange and see the world differently than what most people (those who have gotten into my face about it) think I should.

I like to write about all sorts of fantasy characters that can play with tech toys and give some scientific sounding explanations as to why they exist. Although the science might not be hard core, it at least is present to explain people such as vampires or weres who don’t always turn into wolves. One reason I like to write about different fantasy characters is to show prejudice when it appears. Sometimes that comes in the form of denying such people can exist and yet they do in my universe. The deniers tend to go into shock when they meet those they don’t believe exist. I also like to compare and contrast different characters to show that some are good and some are bad irregardless of whether they are human, were, elf, fairy, etc.