The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#4) -- Creative Influences

Who are some of your creative influences? -- Bobby Nash

I’ll admit up front it’s a mixed bag of goodness and badness. Coming from an English-Lit background, I’m the kind of guy who enjoys reading Shakespeare, Flannery O’Connor, Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald for fun. I’m also a big fan of Raymond Carver, Annie Dillard, C.S. Lewis, and Zora Neale Hurston.

But I’m love my thrillers too, and Ed McBain’s work is a huge influence as well as that of Donald Westlake and Christa Faust.

When I turn to sci-fi, I’m kind of old-school, and I prefer to read Vonnegut, Heinlein, and Bradbury, or sometimes Dr. Who novelisations (see that ‘s’ – that’s because it’s British… cool, huh?) from the old series.

And I've recently rediscovered the work of H. Rider Haggard, particularly his brilliant She series of tales, and the exciting Mars saga by E. R. Burroughs. 

For comics, I always inspired by books written by Chuck Dixon, Steve Seagle, Beau Smith, or Gail Simone. Those guys (and that classy lady) really deliver the goods on a consistent basis.