Your writing GURU . why?

I find inspiration in the works of Toni Morrison. She tells her stories simply, yet everything she writes has so much meaning.

John Steinbeck - he taught me how to show and not tell.

Tolkien. He realised there's a whole lot of missing lore and history of common people. I love studying old records and documents and including little known, interesting facts in my YA historical fantesy writing.

JD Salinger - He taught me that I can write the way I want to write. I love his style and I love that he was not about compromise.

Ray Bradbury. His short stories captivate me. I am in awe of his imagination and creativity.

Harlan Ellison's non-fiction. Especially his essays in the LA Free Press from the 70s and 80s. Taught me that an author's voice can be plain-spoken, poignant and barbarous--all at the same time.

Uncle Jim: Hands down the biggest influence on my writing and my writing style.

Stephen King: On Writing is the best book about writing ever written.

C.S. Lewis: Reading The Horse and His Boy started me reading.

Gary Gygax: His works of imagination fueled my imagination.

William Faulkner. He taught me that it's okay to be obsessive and occasionally inscrutable... and entirely unapologetic. Rereading his fiction reminds me why I never wanted to write anything that could be described as "light and fun."

And for nonfiction, Joan Didion. I'm always blown away by how much detail she packs into every sentence, yet still creates essays that read effortlessly.

Jack London - great at dialogue and conveys action unlike any writer ever

Harlan Coben - great ideas

Anita Shreve - layers and layers of interpersonal dynamics all woven together

Writing Guru?

What is that? No, seriously, I don't look for inspiration. If it comes, i'm not looking for it. Lately, though, I've drawn "inspiration," stylistically speaking, from Victorian writers. No names, I don't want to leave anyone out. LOL.

Kurt Vonnegut. I am fascinated by the way he could weave a plot using past, future, present as warp and woof, seemingly at random, yet at the end the whole fabric was there. And I admire his iconoclastic satire and humaneness.

Yet when I set out to write SF I sound like Andre Norton, who I have always loved because she saw me through a hard time. When I reread her stuff I realize the writing really isn't that great, but she carved a place for herself in the SF pantheon.

For writing, I am inspired by the usual heroes of classic sci-fi, such as Verne, Wells, Asimov, Bradbury, Philip K, and others.

I keep a popular column over at Newsvine/MSNBC called 'Straight Talk' (evil laugh) For THAT one...there is only ONE guy I emulate and that's Ken Schram of KOMO TV-4 in Seattle. My personal hero...

P.G. Wodehouse. Greatest writer of the English language ever. I don't even think of trying to aspire to attempt to consider the possibility of emulating him. It's hard to believe we even write in the same language.

Virginia Woolf, as my sig declares. She is my ultimate writing idol; I'd give my left leg for a conversation with her. She taught me that absolutely everything can be beautiful and powerful, and if I can ever teach someone else that same thing, I think I'll feel pretty damn good about myself.

Coleridge....he had the good drugs.

Stephen King and John Steinbeck. But some days it's Margaret Atwood, and some days it's Wallace Stegner and others it's Chuck Palahniuk. Most of the time, it's whoever has me in their thrall that day, lost in their pages.

James Joyce. The greatest novelist of all.