Author(s) you most admire?

C.M. Daniels said:

Joan D. Vinge. She's the reason I'm a writer and an anthropologist. Her style and characters are amazing.

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This was true for me, too. Her anthropology background was one of the main things that convinced me that linguistics would be a good direction for me to go in, if I wanted to write. (Tolkien, too, of course, but he is just so far out there he didn't make following that path seem *possible*.)

Later, I had the great good fortune of having her as one of my Clarion West instructors. Which convinced me that if I could pick anyone in the universe to be my mom, that I would pick her. She is that cool.

Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel García Márquez and Terry Pratchett

No one else has mentioned Roger Zelazny. He has this knack of doing the impossible, while making it look easy. All in half the words you would think.

Stephenie Meyer, hands down. I look up to her in every way, especially her writing.

Dean Koontz is one of my favourite writers. I love his writing style and he always comes up with great characters that you really get to care about.
I love reading Louis L'Amour for his gritty and exciting westerns.

Terry Pratchett and Carl Hiaasen, because they're writers of novels for adults who also write for children and don't talk down to them.
Charlaine Harris, Diana Gabaldon, and Sharyn McCrumb, for making me actually buy hardbacks the minute they came out.
And Nora Roberts and Sherrilyn Kenyon, for pure predictable escapism. When Mr. Mac was laid off, when I was pregnant and hospitalized, when I was in school and my brain was fried, these ladies were my salvation.

H.G. Wells...forget Jules Verne; Wells essentially invented science fiction as we know it. More than that, he wrote his novels to explore his ideas about the serious flaws of the human race. The War of the Worlds, for example, was not just an adventure yarn with some gripping scenes; it was also Wells' response to the British Empire for its genocide in Tasmania. All writers should read Wells' early novels for the sheer economy of words.

Ernest Hemingway...this guy could make you think you're reading a tale about fishing or hunting when he's really talking about sexual inadequacy, jealousy, greed. The dark side of man and woman.

Mark Twain...this guy will have a shelf-life like Shakespeare. His writing still crackles with wit and he was never one to shy away from thumping the ear of those in power.

Kurt Vonnegut...the Mark Twain of the 2oth century. The Sirens of Titan and Slaughterhouse-Five remain two of my all-time favorites. If for nothing else, he deserves a Nobel for his characters' names, like Malachi Constant and Billy Pilgrim.

Yes, H. G. Wells, too. His characters are gloriously human, flawed and absurd and deeply sympathetic. His imagination is both expansive and minute -- I will never forget that forlorn flopping creature on the blood-red shore of a dying world in The Time Machine, or the perambulatory percolations of Dr. Cavor in The First Men in the Moon. From the despair of The Island of Dr. Moreau to man as clown and man as creator, giant, meeting in perfect harmony in The Food of the Gods. In so many ways, the father of science fiction remains its most powerful voice.

Sartre was pretty cool, too.
He wrote philosophy books and also novels.
Takes a lot of ability to be able to write fiction and non-fiction.
Not many can. Guess the only way to find out is to try.
Worse that can happen is you fail...which is pretty demoralizing actually.
So perhaps it's better to just stick to the genre you're good at, rather than trying to branch out.

Douglas Adams, for his wit and intelligence. He was a sharp observer of human behaviour.
Frank Herbert and Tolkien for their ability to immerse the reader in a new world.
But most of all, I think, Terry Pratchett. For the way he makes me laugh. For the way he understands the human mind so well, and creates such deep, real characters. For the way - as someone mentioned - his children's books aren't all that much different to the adult ones, except for the fact that the protagonist is a child. Yay for not talking down to kids.
And, seriously, who else would still be able to raise a chuckle on learning that they have Alzheimer's?

When writer Terry Pratchett was told he had Alzheimer's disease, his first thought was "that's a bit of a bugger". That, and "I hope they hurry up and find a cure quick."

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But life as an in-demand public figure posed specific problems when it came to diagnosing his condition.
"The basic test, for example, will ask you questions like what day of the week is it, what is the date? I have a PA so there are really only two types of day - is my PA in or is my PA out? What day of the week is it? Well if he's not here then it's probably the weekend."
And as a writer of fantasy fiction, and therefore a keen observer of the outlandish, this further complicated matters for those seeking to make a diagnosis.
"One of the questions was how many animals can you name.
"And I said 'let me think... There's the rock hyrax which is the closest living relative to the elephant, and then there's the thylocene which is the possibly extinct Tasmanian werewolf. How many more would you like me to name?'"

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Okay, my reading and interests are all over the place. This list is in no particular order.

John Bunyan for presenting the Christian journey via such an engaging and beautiful portrait.

Charlotte Bronte for somehow managing to trump Jane Austen in opening a world of yesteryear into something that fascinates me. I like Jane, too, but the Bronte sisters don't get enough credit.

Mark Z. Danielewski for writing House of Leaves and getting it published. Basically, I want to say, 'why didn't I think of that?'

Ted Dekker for creating an entire culture around his Christian themed science fiction thrillers, and for managing to do crossover fiction really well. His imagination must keep him awake at night.

Perri O'Shaughnessy for being two witty sisters that have collaborated and created one of my favorite escapist mystery fiction heroines: Nina Reilly

Guy Gavriel Kay. He's who I want to be as a writer when I grow up.

Also, some that haven't been mentioned: Frank L. Baum, Robert E. Howard, Marion Zimmer Bradley (published my first short story ever) and Fritz Leiber. All had profound impact on me as a young reader, and undoubtedly influenced me to become a writer myself.

-- Marcy

Diane Gabaldon for her ability to breathe life into characters while giving me a history lesson. George R.R. Martin for his ability to handle a large cast in his epic Song of Ice and Fire series. David Baldacci for creating credible suspense. Michael Connelly for Harry Bosch, perhaps the most complex detective ever created. Irving Stone for research (I think of his depiction of Michelangelo's life in The Agony and the Ecstasy, everytime I see photos of the Sistine Chapel, the David, or the Pieta.) Larry McMurty for his unromanticized stories of the early western frontier, and Louis L'Amour because he knew the west he wrote about.

Michael Chabon. His short stories give me hope, and his novels are just beautiful.

John Irving. I would pay for the Iowa Writer's Workshop, if they could promise I would end up like him. Plus, there's that pesky admission selection thing . . .

Laurell K. Hamilton. Two series, two worlds, awesome characters.

Stephen King. The reason I wanted to be a writer when I grow up, and On Writing is the reason I finished my first novel, which is more than a touch horror.

ETA: JJ Cooper. Because he trusted me to help. And chided me for not including him.

My favorites are many

Toni Morrison for her honesty and bravery. Charles Frazier for telling a story where you feel like you can smell the woods and feel the cold. Noah Gordon for The Shaman, I was lost in that world for a couple of days. Thomas Moore for his gentle reminders about what really matters, Mark Twain for his ability to see through facades and make me laugh. So many more...is being euphoric in Libraries a crime? (I go a bit crazy and the library woman shelters behind the brochures on sustainable living.)

Robert Frost, (Oh My God that man!) so I have to mention him even though he is a poet. Anais Nin, John O'Donohue for Anam Cara. James Hillman, and being an Aussie, Tim Winton and Nevil Shute. The beautiful children's book Skellig, written by David Almond, is worthy of any attention.

I would like to toss in David McCullough -- for history buffs.

Victor Hugo- for trying to change the world.
Gaston Leroux- for being a crazy go-everywhere, do-everything guy and using it to write amazing stories.
Edgar Allan Poe- for "Eureka," a beautiful way to see the world.
Douglas Adams- for being Douglas Adams.
Terry Pratchett- for his humor and, more recently, the elegant way he's handling his diagnosis.
Neil Gaiman- for his unbelievable way with words, his animated storytelling, and for being a genuinely cool cat.
JK Rowling- for making reading cool again.

I'm sure I'll think of more after I post this, too. These are just the first that come to mind.

Edit: You know what, I have to add Yukio Mishima because even though he was absolutely nuts, he was also incredibly brave.
And Mary Shelley, for outdoing all the boys.

So many to list.

Sabatini, Lovecraft, Poe, Costain, Shellabarger, Singer, Kazantzakis, Hammett, Barnaby Conrad, Irwin Shaw, Wouk, Scott, Doyle ....