This page I have created simply as a list of the writers whose work has had an effect on me as a person and or me as a writer. This list will grow over time as I discover new writers and their work.
Scott Sigler is one of my two favourite writers. As a writer he’s fiction has made me flinch with what he has put characters through (see Infected) as well as pure elation (See The MVP) Mr. Sigler has a work ethic that I wish I could have half of. He has gone from giving his books away as free podcast novels to being a New York Times Best Seller. His website is worth checking out and I hope you like enough to buy one of his books. I can’t put my finger on my favourite Sigler novel. I am very found of his Galactic Football League series. I haven’t read anything of Sigler’s that I haven’t liked.
Along with Sigler, Dan Abnett is my favourite writer. His Gaunt’s Ghosts series of novels set in the Warhammer 40k universe blew my mind when I discovered them and I love what he’s done with the series as it’s progressed (I can even accept the fact that he’s killed my favourite character in the series). Outside of Gaunt’s Ghosts he has worked extensively in comics and novels, just look at his bibliography to see how prolific he is. Embedded is an outstanding novel with some really good concepts in it and his comic, Wild’s End (with I.N.J. Culbard) is one of my favourite comics. It’s a comic that’s got a lot of depth to it that is really subtly done.
Joe Haldeman is a big one here for me. His book The Forever War is probably the first book that absolutely blew my mind away. Its a book which addresses so many social commentaries that until I read it I had not really thought of. His book Camouflage is another one that rally impressed me.
Tom Clancy was the writer who really got me hooked on reading. Rainbow Six was the first novel of his that I read, which at almost 900 pages was quite a feat for someone who had only ever read a 300 page book. Clancy wrote techno espionage thrillers which I found very easy to read. I pretty much read every one of his Jack Ryan series before moving onto any other books. My Favourite book of Clancy’s is Without Remorse.
Clancy wrote entertaining, intelligent and informed books which caught my imagination at a time when I was looking for something that was not based around pop culture.
Justin Macumber is a writer I discovered through the podcast that he founded called The Dead Robots Society, a podcast for writers. I’ve also listen to him talking on another podcast called The Hollywood Outsider, this is a movie and TV podcast.
I’ve read all of Macumber’s novels to date and am particularly fond of Still Water and Fragile. These two books in the Gallows Investigations series have a lot of heart to them in addition to being great stories full of engaging characters. Fragile in particular I found to be a book that really gripped me.
Lafferty is a fantastic writer who also has two podcasts, the long running I Should Be Writing, and the newer Ditch Diggers, which is co-hosted by Matt Wallace. She is also the author of a number of novels including Playing for Keeps, The Heaven Series, The Shambling Guides Books: The Shambling Guide to New York and Ghost Train to New Orleans. Bookburners (with Max Gladstone, Margaret Dunlap, and Brian Francis Slattery) and most recently Six Wakes. Mighty Mur is a big influence for me because I’ve been listening to her podcast for years. I discovered her about the same time as I did Scott Sigler and J.C. Hutchins in the early days of podcasts. I’ve learnt so much from I Should be Writing, but the biggest of which is that it’s okay to suck. That taught me that what I was writing didn’t have to be perfect the first time round.
Cat and Lynx Raven are a writing duo from Cardiff in Wales. They are awesome people. Their Romance Is Dead trilogy of short story collections are awesome reads, especially the stories with the Greek Gods, and recommended to anyone who is looking for something romantic but with more of a homicidal taste. Deadly Reflections is also a short story collection that I found very moving. Their young adult horror/thriller Silent Dawn is the book they’ve written which really struck a nerve with me. I read it and I felt what a lot of the characters were going through. It felt like a good story for this day and age, and it also had a genuine feel to it that made it real. I felt like I was living the story and not reading it.
Peter Germany's World 