What writer has influenced me the most?

The final winning question comes from Eileen for Which writers influence you the most — and why?

She thought this was a dull question, but it is interesting to me. Why? Because the list of people who have influenced me is quite low. In fact, it's zero.

Now, I know that seems really strange, considering that I love reading, I love writing, and every other author out seems to have a list of authors as long as their arm that have inspired them as kids. I don't. My desire to be an author never came out of a love of a specific genre or a desire to be like someone else. It evolved from something that was within me that I stumbled upon.

In many ways, I've become a writer because I want to write the things that my sixteen self whined and complained didn't exist back then. And, on occasion, some are for the 35 year old that I am today [image error]

I've also never been a loyal read to any particular genre. Overall, I've probably read more science fiction than any other genre, though I suspect that's because of the Star Trek novels. But, other than literary and horror, I've read hundreds of books in every genre, especially early on. These days, I'm a little more pickier, but I still genre hop a lot.

I will say that the overall theme that has influenced me is every writer who has written a book solely to entertain readers. At sixteen, I didn't want to read Heart of Darkness. I wanted to read about Captain Picard popping a cap in some Klingon's ass. I wanted to read about counter-terrorists taking out the pinko commies, blowing a strip from here to Moscow and leaving a trail of panting women along the way (well, I wanted the genders reversed, but work with me here).

I love to read. I love to forget that I have deadlines, bills, children with unique needs, litter boxes, marketing, a lot of dishes. So, I want to return that literary karma and give some teenage girl who hates her life and herself six or seven hours where she can pretend to be someone else and live through them.

…And I'm going to write something it in such a way that there's no way her parents would ever let her read it, so she's totally going to sneak it home from the library. Because that's what I did. *high fives the local librarian for letting me take home Danielle Steele at 12.

Thank you everyone for such great questions! I loved them all.