Influences

You notice there is no “r” in there. Influences not Influencers. As in “Who are your influences as an author?”

It is one of the most common questions I get when I am interviewed or a guest on a podcast or even when having a conversation with someone and I tell them I am an author. I know they are asking about which authors influence my writing style, but my reflex is always to say my dad was the biggest influence on me because he made me a “reader” which influenced me as a “writer”.

It’s true. I don’t think anyone becomes a writer without being a reader. And I think most writers enjoy writing what they enjoy reading.

Mostly because of my dad, I read a ton of action fiction and nonfiction when I was a pre-teen and teenager. I read the first four or five Tom Clancy books. I read the Brotherhood of War series from W.E.B. Griffin. I read some of the Dick Marcinko books and a bunch by Gary Linderer. There was a series of books by Barry Sadler (the guy that sang Ballad of the Green Berets) called Casca about a Roman soldier banished to travel through time after he stabbed Christ on the cross.

There were a few Louis L’Amour books in there including Last of the Breed, an excellent book by the way. I read the Jason Bourne series and some of the Jack Reacher books, along with some Vince Flynn. Another favorite series, until it completely jumped the shark, was called The Guardians by a man named Victor Woodward Milan under the penname Richard Austin.

Did I read the Shakespeare? Yep. Hated it. Steinbeck bored me to tears. Catch-22 and All Quiet on the Western Front should have been in my wheelhouse but really didn’t grab me. Catcher in the Rye was given to me by my sister when I was in 8th grade and I read it in one night. That was my leap into “adult” reading. Great book. Haven’t read it since.

A Separate Peace. Brave New World. Equus. In Country. Lord of the Flies. Some Tolstoy. Some Hemingway (who I should enjoy more, but don’t). Read them all. There is even some stuff I read on deployments that I wouldn’t normally read like James Patterson and Michael Crichton. I read things that my kids were reading like the Harry Potter series and the Hunger Games books. Not bad writing at all, just not anything that really hit my personal tastes.

I did a lot of professional reading while I was in the Army. We Were Soldiers Once…and Young. The Prince. Dereliction of Duty. I read some of the biographies, including Patton, Bradley, and Roosevelt. Lots of books and articles that focused on counterinsurgency like The Bear Went Over the Mountain, Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife, Not a Good Day to Die, and others. I did all the required reading, too, like von Clausewitz and Sun Tzu and T.E. Lawrence. There were lots of books about Paratroopers and the 82nd Airborne in WWII.

As you can tell, I did a lot of reading. And that doesn’t include academic reading for my bachelor or masters ’s degrees.

So, what does it mean to me when people ask who my influences are?

All of it. All of it influenced me. The good. The bad. The tedious. The terrible. The mind-blowing. Fiction and non-fiction. It all influenced me. It influenced me to write what and how I like to read. I’ve dipped my toe into some poetry and some short stories. I’ve got at least three novels that I have started and haven’t touched in a few years.

Now…. I write the Terry Davis Series. Three books published and working on a fourth. Keep Moving, Keep Shooting, Cross to Bear, and Rebellis. I write them for me, in my style, in the way I like to write and I like to read.

If you forced me to pick the ones that influenced my writing the most? Griffin, Clancy, Austin. Those three top the list.

If you want to know who was my biggest influence as a writer? My dad because he made me a reader.