Time To Get Real

My writing influences

While I've been writing, which has been for the past fourteen years, I've come up with some pretty radical short stories. Some of them are in my port. Others are too out there for public consumption.

Which begs the question, where the heck do my ideas come from? Since I'm going through a little spring cleaning(see blog entry below), I'm really starting to think about all the books that really stuck out to me in my mind.

Edgar Allen Poe and RL Stine were my biggest influences as a child. I liked Edgar Allen Poe's moody creepiness. It was the antidote to the all the happy go-lucky books I was forced to read. RL Stine was also equally creepy, but after awhile, I caught on to his formula and became jaded with his work.

Maya Angelou's autobiographies, while both humorous and sad, really got me thinking seriously about telling my own stories(that and trying to outdo RL Stine, lol). She was the first black woman I read about who wasn't born over a hundred years ago, and who I really identified with. Up until I read "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings", I was actually getting ready to stop reading books for fun altogether(at around age 11, lol). Thankfully, I changed my mind.

Piers Anthony was an influence that came later, but I started reading his Xanth series when I was questioning whether or not I should continue reading for pleasure again(at age 15, this time). "Zombie Lover" was both hilarious and opened up a whole world of the english language to me. I definitely learned a lot about puns and double meanings from Piers.

I've enjoyed reading books by many other authors, but they haven't really influenced my writing style.

As for some of the ideas, such as reincarnation, and the intersocial relationships of my characters(let's face it, 90% of my short stories are relationship driven), I don't know. A lot of my ideas come to me when I'm just sitting quietly by myself. Poof, out of thin air. That's pretty much how "Visionary" came about. My songs on the other hand, usually start off with a melody I think up myself, and then I work out the lyrics.

So, that's pretty much where my ideas come from, and why I write what I do.