Years ago, I read a lot of sci-fi. I would say that I wasn’t really inspired by a lot of them. Robert Heinlein was IT for me – I used to have a collection of his early works, mostly written for 12 year old boys in the 1950’s. Except I wasn’t 12 in the 50’s, it was much later.
I used to read all of Tolkien’s stuff, but that’s not the playground I envision. I really can’t say he was an influence.
I read a lot by Michael Crichton, starting with Andromeda Strain and going on to Jurassic Park. And I had a bunch of “The Rabbi Slept in” books. And I had the entire series of Dirty Harry paperbacks, which were abysmal, really. But I was a Clint Eastwood fan growing up.
But (and you’ll spot it when I get my first story extract online in a couple of days) …
Clancy.
Yup. Tom Clancy.
Which is really strange, because when you read my stuff, you’ll spot that I’m not writing Techno-Thriller. There’s a little Techno-Thriller in there, but it’s action/drama/horror/techo-thriller/military/survival.
I would really say that I learned the craft of fiction writing from reading Tom Clancy. Certainly, I’ve read a lot of fiction. I can honestly say, that I got a lot from Clancy.
And probably my imagination has been captivated by black and white movies growing up about giant praying mantises, crashing flying saucers, half fish men from the Black Lagoon in the Amazon running amok in Florida at an Aquarium, and a dinosaur in Mexico.
Add all that together, and I’m sure in some way they all influenced me.
