Way back when I first started out to be a writer– no, not back in 2001. Before that. Nope, before that. before that– yep, back in the late 80s, when I began University and first set out to myself the idea that I might do this writing lark for actual monies, I was a simple boy from a working class background with a very mainstream and staid set of cultural influences.
Except in two regards: one was music, because I had my own boombox and could absorb the late night programs on the FM channels that were still fighting for ascendancy with my parents’ easy listening AM mainstays, and using progressive programming and an aggressively contemporary– still mainstream and radio friendly, but at least up-to-date– playlist aimed at attracting a younger audience.
The other was reading. My mother was a keen reader, and although we didn’t have many books in the house, she was an avid user of the local libraries, and our house had pretty much an ‘if you can reach it, you can read it’ system in place. Consequently, I was exposed to a wide range of what passed for literature in Rockingham libraries in the 80s (lots of Zane Grey and Jackie Collins, maybe not quite so much Don De Lillo and Jorge Luis Borges…) So I read Lord of the Rings at ten, was openly reading Erica Jong before I finished primary school, became a lifelong fan of Dick Francis and Robert Ludlum at a time when my peers were still reading Roald Dahl and John Marsden, and generally had the run of the local libraries. At a time when you could get a maximum of 2 books out if you were under 15, and 4 if you were over, I had a “how many this week?” relationship with the staff at the little library in Safety Bay that worked wonders for both my imagination and my biceps.
And then there was science fiction. SF was the genre that gave me the hunger, the one that opened my mind to not only what was being done in literature, but just what could be done. When I first started to write, seriously, with intent, in those early years of University, when all my horizons were limitless and my ambitions stretched light years beyond my abilities, I wrote science fiction. And when it came to influences, these were the gods I carried in my back pocket, whose words shaped the style of writer I wanted to be. Earlier on, I discussed 5 writers whose work I love and who influence my current ambitions. Now it’s time to look backwards, and talk about those who influenced my early steps.
Five for Friday: Earliest Influences
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