Lewis Caroll
Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass
Entranced during childhood and beyond by the quests with very quirky characters and fun situations.
Influenced and still influences everything.
Anne Tyler
Love her quirky characters, the humor, and the interesting plots. Locations are also often well-drawn.
Influenced almost everything, but especially my first published novel:
Sara’s Search
Nancy Drew
Influenced:
Tina Tales, especially Cluttered Attic Secrets where a group of friends—both female and male, but grown-up–attempt to solve a mystery. Sassy, pro-active protagonist.
Organized to Death
Buried Under Clutter
Cluttered Attic Secrets
Donald Westlake
Dortmunder Series, but all his books are great with engrossing situations and amazing characters.
Influenced: The Artie Crimes series:
Artie and the Long-Legged Woman
Artie and the Green-Eyed Woman
Artie and the Brown-Eyed Woman
Artie and the Red-Haired Woman
and upcomming, Artie and the Big-Footed Woman
Sue Grafton
Influenced, of course, my female PI series about Paula Mitchell:
Perfect Victim
A Broken Life
Secret Exposure
I recommend composing your own blog post about the five major influencers of your writing.
(Sorry about the formatting. I don’t know why WordPress won’t let me do single spacing in this post, and I don’t want to take the time to figure it out when i could use the time better by writing my fiction!)
Only five? People have been posting on FB about 15 influences. I believe we’re influenced in one way or another by everything we read–but that could make for a really long list.
I may have to borrow the idea for one of my blog posts.
Other than Carroll and Grafton I haven’t read any of the other authors you list.
A great listing! Also nicely varied.
Thanks, Jacqui–I didn’t realize the wide variation until you mentioned it. LOL