Goodreads asked Mark Leidner:

How do you get inspired to write?

Mark Leidner Almost every emotion inspires me, but the earliest inspirations I had were anger. I'd see another piece of writing that was famous or a writer who seemed to abuse their position of influence and I'd get so angry that I'd want to write something that would contrast with whatever worldview was setting me off. Nowadays that doesn't inspire me, as I've tried to rid myself of anger. Usually what inspires me now is a character I love. I want to live in their shoes or see what they do when they're up against impossible odds, so I write to give them challenges and to see how those challenges change (or don't change) them. I am also motivated by my close friends' and loved ones' encouragement. I want to write in order to live up to their expectations, which, to a large extent, I have set by telling them about what I want to write and why. So there's some element of closeknit community that I feel believes in me and whom I don't want to let down. There are hundreds more things that inspire me, but one is other books I read that are simply beautiful or stunning in their form or content. Those books inspire me. Lately I have drawn the most inspiration from the byzantine and brutal noir mysteries of Philip Kerr, R.I.P. Those novels confront evil in all kinds of ways, and they do so with a kind of hard-won optimism that I am always uplifted by when the evils of the world get me down. I could go on forever but I'll end here.

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