The Dark One
Auror
I always hated being asked who my influences were as I always saw myself as unique.
A little maturity teaches me that any writer is li6ttle more than the aggregate of their favourite writers, tropes and styles, so I have gradually accepted that people cannot help but compare me with those who went before, and a little honest analysis can even show me precisely the previous paths I've followed.
Putting my crime novels to one side, readers of my other (speculative fiction) work tend mostly to compare me with Michael Moorcock, Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams. I do enjoy all of those writers so its hard to say I wasn't influenced, but I've only recently accepted that perhaps I wasn't as unflinchingly original as I thought.
And being compared with such giants is hardly an insult.
With whom have you been compared, and / or whose influence do you detect within your own work?
A little maturity teaches me that any writer is li6ttle more than the aggregate of their favourite writers, tropes and styles, so I have gradually accepted that people cannot help but compare me with those who went before, and a little honest analysis can even show me precisely the previous paths I've followed.
Putting my crime novels to one side, readers of my other (speculative fiction) work tend mostly to compare me with Michael Moorcock, Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams. I do enjoy all of those writers so its hard to say I wasn't influenced, but I've only recently accepted that perhaps I wasn't as unflinchingly original as I thought.
And being compared with such giants is hardly an insult.
With whom have you been compared, and / or whose influence do you detect within your own work?