| Author | Message | ||
     Mbfg (Mbfg) Username: Mbfg Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 212.219.63.204 |
Out of intersst. this is based on some e-mail/facebook crular that came to my wife ysteray but it is an iteresting and quite difficult exercise bcause it isn't about our favourite authors or books but who and what flicked the creative switch. "Way Station" by Clifford Simak Michael Moorcock's fantasy novels John Steinbeck Ray Bradbury Stephen King Clive Barker Thomas Hardy's short fition The first series of Star Trek "The Lost World" by Arthur Conan Doyle Jimmy McGovern Quinton Tarentino Allen Ashley D F Lewis | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.82.196 |
Ramsey Campbell Stephen King John Cleese Fawlty Towers Auf Wiedersehen Pet Roald Dahl Ben Elton The Boy From Space Only Fools and Horses Julian Barnes A few English tutors 80s sit-coms Tennyson Shakespeare Psychology My late grandma Boredom during adolescence Bradford The Yorkshire Dales School life First jobs A girl I once knew | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.21 |
My mum Ewa my wife to be Ramsey Campbell Dennis Etchinson My junior school teacher, Mrs Cardwell E.F Benson M.R. James Stephen King Penelope Fitzgerald Neil Gaiman James Ellroy Rod Serling/Charles Beaumont via TZ Patrick McGoohan via The Prisoner My life in general Poland (it rejuvenated me) Liverpool (inspirational for many reasons) All of the books in the now sadly extinct Chapter One bookshop in Liverpool Two friends Peter Burgess and Neil Jonson Every teacher who told me in high school not to be silly Michael Chabon Clive Barker, especially after The Books of Blood and The Thief of Always David Cronenberg John Carpenter Aickman | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 86.131.0.116 |
my nightmares, fears and neuroses my parents nearly all my teachers (I was lucky and they were very encouraging!) Edgar Allan Poe Stephen King Ramsey Campbell Shirley Jackson Angela Carter David Cronenberg David Lynch the Victorian period (endlessly fascinating and eccentric) | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.237.21 |
Ramsey Campbell (of course) H.P. Lovecraft M.R. James S.T. Joshi (pivotal) Philip K. Dick Arthur C. Clarke Richard Matheson Eric Frank Russell Robert Sheckley William Hope Hodgson Arthur Machen Oscar Wilde Vladimir Nabokov Julio Cortazar Dutch-language authors: Gerard Reve, Willem Frederik Hermans, Maarten 't Hart (. . .) French-language authors: Gérard Prévot, Thomas Owen, Roger Peyrefitte, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (. . .) I share with Gary Fry a certain 'boredom during adolescence' and with Kate a fascination for the Victorian age. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 82.27.31.207 |
My best friend when I was little and who wanted to write Dr Who Terrance Dicks The interviews with writers in Peter Haining's Dr Who books -- especially the Robert Holmes one WE Johns Willard Price Alan Moore Neil Gaiman Garth Ennis Stan Lee Chris Claremont Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Joss Whedon John Connolly Joe R Lansdale John Sullivan William Goldman Robert B Parker Lawrence Block Mark Waid Michael Moorcock Jackanory Robert Anton Wilson Grant Morrison Over-active imagination combined with social awkwardness Being happy Being angry (not as effective unfortunately) Tons of other things | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.237.21 |
And the early Bradbury - how could I forget him? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
In all honestly? Ok: The north east of England The Boys from the Blackstuff Joel Lane Ramsey Campbell Dennis Etchison Charles Bukowski My dead father's corrosive self-loathing Adolescent psychotic thoughts Stephen King Robert R. McCammon My dead father's skill as an artist Kerouac's On the Road 2000AD magazine Narnia Speilberg The Cold War Francis Bacon Poe Dali Van Gogh Edward Hopper Hitchcock Hammer House of Horror magazine Pornography Mild OCD Paranoia Alcohol Recreational drug use Sleaze Exposure to violence An intense interest in human relationships And lots more.  | ||
| Johnny_mains (Johnny_mains) Username: Johnny_mains Registered: 04-2010 Posted From: 86.31.118.252 |
My Dad English teacher Mrs McAndrew Conrad Hill Harry E Turner Norman Kaufmann Roger Dunkley Mary Danby Hammer Amicus Tigon Night Gallery Joan Aiken Christine Campbell Thomson Basil Copper | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
[song lyrics deleted for copyright reasons] | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
(That's a clue to another of my artistic "triggers") | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.82.196 |
Ah, Uptown Girl. | ||
| Alexicon (Alexicon) Username: Alexicon Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 88.106.54.113 |
Cash. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
Joel, but not Lane.  | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
are those lyrics copyrigted? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
Dunno. I cut and pasted them from the internet. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.140.190.159 |
Being adopted Moving house a lot as a kid Being an only child Toys The Armada Books of Ghost Stories The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe The Birds Psycho Universal horror films Hammer films Mum using a ouija board Mum and Dad talking about ghosts Our gorgeous neighbour wearing a just white night dress then pulling out a hideous green clawed hand (I was a kid - the hand was rubber) Thriller Planet of the Apes Jaws Hammer House of Horror mags The library Oliver Reed Roddie McDowall Hywell Bennett in various things Barbarella Dr Who The flats on Scotswood road Gary Numan Vincent (Don Maclean) Seasons in the Sun (Terry Jacks) Action Comic The Haunting Those metal horror heads you got from Tudor crisps. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
GF - can you delete those lyrics? I'd assume they are copyrighted. My bad.  | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
Those metal horror heads you got from Tudor crisps. Wear-em Scare-ems. Loved those, I did. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.153.237.162 |
In no particular order.... Michel Parry HP Lovecraft Charles Dickens Enid Blyton WE Johns Chris Reed Carl Ford Karl Edward Wagner Stephen Jones Rhys Hughes Dave W Hughes PF Jeffery Robert Aickman Thomas Ligotti Tim Lebbon Simon Clark Mark Samuels Nik Morton Stan Tal Tamar Yellin Madame Steel and others I've unforgiveably forgotten | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 86.131.0.116 |
Billy Joel's *actually* gonna come on Ramsey Campbell's message board and stomp your arse for quoting one of his songs? Riiiiight. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
This list may come across a bit trite but I've mulled it over quite a bit & it's as honest as I can be so here we go (in rough chronological order): Dr Who The Pan Book of Horror Stories British Horror Films 1955 – 1974 Robert Bloch R Chetwynd-Hayes Monty Python My (?slightly) eccentric upbringing and family (and there are at least a hundred or so influences there) The eventful life I’ve had since leaving home (and about a thousand more there, easily) And the major trigger without which I would never have committed a single creative word to paper: The need to have something in my life guaranteed to make smile... …until Lady P came along  | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.82.196 |
Zed - just dunnit for you. No need to thank me. Haha. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.82.196 |
I forgot one from my list: Alcohol. Sadly a thing of the past now.  | ||
| Johnny_mains (Johnny_mains) Username: Johnny_mains Registered: 04-2010 Posted From: 86.31.118.252 |
I think you can quote anything that's copyrighted as long as your quote uses no more than 150 - 250 words? Fair use laws or something like that. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.82.196 |
Johnny, if Nell McAndrew had been my English tutor, I might have tried harder at school. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.82.196 |
If words from songs are copywritten, then there's about a thousand lyric sites breaking the law online! | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
I could sue you for that, Fry. Does anyone have the number for Claims Direct? | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.82.196 |
666 | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.68 |
Anthony Di Giannurio's cover for the November 1952 Weird Tales M. R. James H. P. Lovecraft Ray Thomas (my last English teacher) August Derleth (as a mentor) Graham Greene Vladimir Nabokov Robin Wood Los Olvidados Last Year in Marienbad my family psychoactives | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
You missed Rupert the Bear from your list Ramsey | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
I'm not actually joking with that comment. I remember ramsey showing me a scene from Rupert that gave him nightmares as a child - something to do with walking trees. He claims it as an early intro to horror. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.68 |
You're right, Marc - the very first inspiration! The tale ("Rupert's Christmas Tree") is reprinted in full here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rupert-Collection-Favourite-Gyles-Brandreth/dp/140523074 6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290440473&sr=1-1 | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.82.196 |
And it has a contribution by Glyles Brendeth to inspire a whole new generation of horror writers! | ||
| Chris_morris (Chris_morris) Username: Chris_morris Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 12.165.240.116 |
Robert Aickman Vladimir Nabokov David Ohle Raymond Carver Peter Straub Martin Amis Donald Barthelme Stephen King John Fowles Saul Bellow Douglas Adams Brian Evenson Russell Edson Monty Python's Flying Circus The films of Andrei Tarkovsky Fanny and Alexander | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.149.168 |
Childhood nightmares and lack of sleep The Beowulf legend Greek, Egyptian and Norse mythology Ray Bradbury Robert Aickman Ramsey Campbell Fritz Leiber M. John Harrison Sylvia Plath Edwin Morgan Jean Genet Joy Division Bob Dylan Leonard Cohen Weird folk ballads 'The Tenant' (film) 'Running On Empty' (film) Alderley Edge Digbeth (Birmingham) Stourbridge Canals Railway bridges | ||
| Jamie Rosen (Jamie) Username: Jamie Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 99.241.48.210 |
Hmm.... -My mother encouraged me, and I think in retrospect inspired me because she wrote as well, although for a long time she mostly hid it from the rest of the family. I've always felt vaguely guilty about that. -My teachers. Not all of them, but some when it counted -- Grade 4, then again in junior high, and in high school a couple of English teachers as well. -My first girlfriend. She was far more intellectual and artistically developed than I was, and there are a few things I'd never have written were it not for her prompting me to look at things from a different perspective. Really, she was so influential on my development that saying she inspired me to write is giving her short shrift. -As far as writers go... Harlan Ellison and Barry Malzberg both tap into an emotional side I often shy away from but try to reach anyway. James Tiptree Jr. More recently, Carol Emshwiller, Donald Barthelme, Joyce Carol Oates. You'd think that with inspirations like that I'd be able to turn out something halfway decent... :/ | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.209.11.141 |
Twin Peaks Sherlock Holmes The Three Investigators Tales of the Unexpected Helen Hoke's anthologies The Weirdstone of Brisingamen The Hammer House of Horror The Yorkshire Ripper Hitchcock Jack the Ripper Ramsey Campbell Funfairs The opening credits to Armchair Thriller Monstrous nature (huge insects, etc) The Fighting Fantasy books | ||
| Matthew Fryer (Matthew_fryer) Username: Matthew_fryer Registered: 08-2009 Posted From: 90.195.182.42 |
Fighting Fantasy books (Good one Steve) Alan Garner PG Wodehouse Clive Barker Poppy Z Brite Gary McMahon Mehitobel Wilson Poe Lovecraft David Lynch The League of Gentlemen team Hammer Amicus Tim Burton's "Vincent" East-European Gypsy ska music Seedy Brazilian electronica Tom Waits Iron Maiden Kraftwerk Velvet Acid Christ Rammstein Apocalyptica Nick Cave The ocean Pscychoactives HR Giger | ||
| Matthew Fryer (Matthew_fryer) Username: Matthew_fryer Registered: 08-2009 Posted From: 90.195.182.42 |
Great thread, by the way Interesting stuff. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.68 |
Oh, for heaven's sake (I rebuke myself). How could I have left out Fritz Leiber? He showed me the way at least as much as any other writer. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.82.196 |
Might Mr Aickman be missing from your list, too, Ramsey? | ||
| Rosswarren (Rosswarren) Username: Rosswarren Registered: 11-2009 Posted From: 81.132.145.170 |
Stephen King The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe Enid Blyton The Little Grey Men books by BB. Rent-a-ghost The X-Files Living in Spain in my pre-teen years. Star Wars Two English Teachers and One Form Tutor Clive Barker's Books of Blood Gary McMahon James Cooper Neil Gaiman Joe Hill Horror Movie 'The Gate' Steve Livingstone's Choose Your Own Adventure Books. My mom banning be from reading 'The Exorcist' My Big Sister for leaving a copy of IT in a box of stuff to go to the charity shop. My Little Sister for general encouragment. Horrorwriters.net forum Black Static Magazine | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.82.196 |
Whereabouts in Spain did you live, Ross? | ||
| Rosswarren (Rosswarren) Username: Rosswarren Registered: 11-2009 Posted From: 81.132.145.170 |
In the mountains about 30mins from Benidorm http://www.hickerphoto.com/tarbena-village-costa-blanca-13000-pictures.htm | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.68 |
"Might Mr Aickman be missing from your list, too, Ramsey?" I don't think of him as that much of an influence, to tell you the truth, much as I admire his work. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
The Gate? Is that the film from the 80's where they play the heavy metal album backwards and a gate to hell opens in the back yard? At one point the boy has an eye in the middle of his palm - that really freaked me out when I saw it. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.140.190.159 |
It is! It's a great, creepy film. Sort of rubbish but powerful. Drags a bit near the end, though. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.82.196 |
>>>"Might Mr Aickman be missing from your list, too, Ramsey?" I don't think of him as that much of an influence, to tell you the truth, much as I admire his work. That's interesting. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.82.196 |
Ross: nice. How come you lived there? | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
Who did: Edgar Allan Poe Frank Herbert Ray Bradbury Voltaire H.G. Wells Robert Louis Stevenson Doctor Who novelisations (especially the early ones, such as The Web Planet and The Crusaders, though my favourite of all was The Daemons) 2000 AD (the comic) Who does: Italo Calvino Stanislaw Lem Jack Vance Jorge Luis Borges Cordwainer Smith Brian Aldiss Michael Moorcock Boris Vian Raymond Queneau Alvaro Mutis Who never did and never will: J.R.R. Tolkien Jane Austen Henry James Shirley Jackson Penelope Lively Penelope Deadly Penelope Pitstop Helen Fielding (and all other chick lit) Tonguewaggle Chipchop Pigwinder Bratbat John Updike Crime fiction of any kind Gertrude Stein | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
Aren't Penelope Pitstop & Tonguewaggole Chipchop the same person?  And Gertrude Stein's not as scary as my mind's rendering of Gertrude Satan, which is how I first read that. | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
Tonguewaggle Chipchop is Penelope Pitstop's deep-fried gimp. Gertrude Satan isn't a patch on Gerturd Stan who dwells in northern outdoors loos. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.157.25.58 |
A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose in Satan's hand or God's | ||
| Rosswarren (Rosswarren) Username: Rosswarren Registered: 11-2009 Posted From: 81.132.145.170 |
@Gary My mom and step-dad retired but had to come back after a few years as his sons were strugling with the business. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 88.111.132.33 |
As a child...Living at the mouth of a wood and fear of the dark at that time The Moomins - Little My Rupert....I still have some annuals My family The Seven Samurai Old B movies like The Day the Earth Stood Still Now added Aickman Tuttle Leiber Harlan Ellison Plath Daphne Du Maurier Shirley Jackson Ray Bradbury Joel Lane Ramsey Rider Haggard and Robert E Howard Snakes Greek mythology The Pre-Rapaelites and others Shakespeare George Orwell Angela Carter Orson Welles Lansdale Swinburne Ovid Many books that I studied at uni inspire me now Great architecture and artwork as in Orvieto Cathedral Pompeii Countries visited including those in Europe, Iceland and China (mostly Hong Kong). | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 88.111.132.33 |
Forgot one....death. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
Boobies always inspired me, and will continue to do so. Bums, too. Bums and boobies: my two main influences. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.82.196 |
Oh, can we include artists? Oh well, then Tony Hart was a big influence. Like, obviously. Never the same after Morph let that trouble-causer get involved, tho. A real dip from Hart's peak, and one akin to, say, Hitch's Marnie. Yeah, he did work after that, but it was never quite the same. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 88.111.132.33 |
Should be Pre-Raphaelites. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 88.111.132.33 |
And apart from correcting that spelling. I'd add the sea. Always inspiring. | ||
| Mark West (Mark_west) Username: Mark_west Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.39.177.173 |
My Dad and his book collection The Three Investigators series Star Wars (my friends & I used to write ‘continuing adventures’) The Galactic Warlord, by Douglas Hill Peter Haining (esp. “The Restless Bones”) Stephen King Clive Barker Robert R McCammon Mr Alexander and Miss Clough, two of my English teachers at Montsaye, who encouraged my writing Alfred Hitchcock Dennis Etchison David Cronenberg John Landis There are quite a few more too, but these’ll do for now | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.140.190.159 |
Ah yes! My Dad's copy of The Devil Rides Out left on the car seat while he went to the pub in about 1974. That opening chapter really got me. | ||
| Paul_finch (Paul_finch) Username: Paul_finch Registered: 11-2009 Posted From: 92.1.31.203 |
My mum and dad. Who encouraged me from the word go. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.82.196 |
My mum and dad, too, for screwing my mind up. Larkin said it best. | ||
| Darren O. Godfrey (Darren_o_godfrey) Username: Darren_o_godfrey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 207.200.116.133 |
Poe Lovecraft Leiber Henry James Bradbury Shakespeare Dickens Blackwood Ellison Faulkner Oates Bierce Jerome Bixby Roald Dahl Shirley Jackson Charles L. Grant Stephen King Peter Straub Dennis Etchison Ramsey Campbell Dan Simmons Joe Lansdale Robert R. McCammon Michael McDowell Clive Barker Thomas Tessier Michael Marshall (Smith) Douglas Adams Berni Wrightson Thomas Canty Orson Welles Alfred Hitchcock David Cronenberg David Lynch Brad Anderson Mary Chase Vincent Price James Stewart Charles Laughton Monty Python Rowan Atkinson Hugh Laurie Alice Cooper My Aunt Venna Rae, and my best friend, 'Woodie Maness, among others. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.171.129.68 |
Initially A bunch of 'primer' illustrated books that I insisted my parents read me over and over again, until it got to the point where I sort of recognised the words on the page before I understood how to read. Then Dr Who and Stan Lee and one teacher - Mrs Asher, I think, my first year teacher - who refused our 'table' at school permission to go to lunch until our stories were finished. I did not make friends that day, because I was so involved in writing my story that I wouldn't stop until it was finished. And finished properly, which meant all sorts of arguments from the other kids who couldn't believe I'd written three pages, an enormous feat for a 5-year-old. Then it was being ill a lot and living mostly in my head through my childhood, with periods being bed bound. Enid Blyton and assorted other kids' writers, most notably amongst them the wonderful Clive King and his superb Stig Of the Dump. Mark Twain. My parents trying to persuade me that the movie Logan's Run was over after the protagonists got out of the city, so that they could get me to bed early, and me explaining how it should it. (I was mostly right.) Discovering written SF that wasn't Dr Who novelisations. An SF anthology for kids, Space 1, was very important. I read it about age 8 and understood maybe one word in five but made up my own stories of what the tales were about as I read. The Saga Of Asgard. NASA. Seeing the moon as a globe for the first time and staring at it, wondering if anyone was on it as I watched (alas, Apollo was over by the time I was old enough to do this). Being intrigued by the other business of the night and then being flattered enough to be shown (that's what it felt like) the magnificence of what I now suspect was ball lightning one of those nights I was moon-gazing. Falling in love daily. 1970s telly, from Space Sentinals and Rocket Robin Hood, through Salvage-1 ('once upon a time a junkman had a dream') and Starsky and Hutch and The Love Boat and short reel cartoons - Tom & Jerry, Road Runner, etc - to Disney movies and Star Wars. Growing up with moorland on the outskirts of a mill-village in Yorkshire, with the three geographical locators of my youth being Emley Moor Mast (seriously, Google it: the space age on my doorstep in the 70s), The Victoria Tower overlooking Huddersfield, and Black Dick's Temple (source of ghost stories and adventurous notions of secret tunnels). And a close encounter with a man who most likely was the Yorkshire Ripper (very few other folk around that time would've been hauling people about in the boot of their car, I suspect); I was saved, as was my pal Robert, by imagination. We saw his car pull up and played army snipers, thus probably saving our lives given what we then saw... Sutcliffe wouldn't have baulked at taking two kids' lives, despite his reputation at the time for killing women only. The blonde-haired blue-eyed girl who was my Becky Thatcher if Sutcliffe was my Injun Joe. All those chaste summers we ran in the wheat and breathed the excitable air of youth. Arthur C Clarke, whose very name was enough to excite me. His SF was AWE incarnate, his TV shows mysterious, his The View From Serendip the first adult non-fiction book I read for pleasure. Stephen King Cliff Simak Frank Herbert Some bloke called Ramsey Campbell Robert Holdstock Discovering the short stories of TC Boyle Martin Amis. Peter Straub. Dan Simmons. Simon Clark's early stuff was important, as I discovered it during my 5-year period of living in my bed when I could barely read, let alone write. Lots of others in passing, then the writer members of the rcmb about 8 years ago, particularly Gary Fry, who encouraged me not only to type up the short stories I'd write in longhand but also to write straight onto a computer. Constant tiredness and physical pain. The necessity of finding joy and contentment in the natural world. My girlfriend Michelle, who's been with my for five unpublished novels and countless short stories, and yet who still thinks I'm worth something and thinks I'm talented, even though some days I can barely stand up. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.171.129.68 |
Oh, and how could I forget: George Formby Will Hay Harold Loyd And Stan and Ollie. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.171.129.68 |
More recently I'd add John le Carre, rediscovering Dickens as an adult and Ray Bradbury too, and Haydn Middleton and Evan Hunter/Ed McBain, James Lee Burke and now my current kick: Ken Bruen. | ||
| Richard_gavin (Richard_gavin) Username: Richard_gavin Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 65.110.174.71 |
1. The feeling that I'm ill-suited for the human race; a pervasive inkling that I've had for as long as I can remember. 2. Night. 3. Secluded and abandoned places. 4. A dark mysticism 5. Horror art in every medium. 6. Wintertime. 7. The global tribe of mutants who "do not see as others see" and express themselves as practitioners and/or connoisseurs of otherness. (In other words, someone like you.) 8. My wife and kids. | ||
| Degsy (Degsy) Username: Degsy Registered: 08-2010 Posted From: 86.139.163.128 |
'who and what flicked the creative switch' Listening to Paul Durcan read his poetry in the National Gallery in Dublin when I was about 16 or so. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
This is a fascinating thread! I haven't taken part previously as I don't consider myself a writer (I just "play" at being a writer sometimes), but I'll list the things (and people) which have made me WANT to be a writer: Doctor Who Star Trek (original series) Rod Serling/Twilight Zone/Night Gallery Roald Dahl/Tales of the Unexpected The Outer Limits (original series) The X-Files Boris Karloff and his films Hammer Horror/Amicus films/Messrs Cushing, Lee & Price Anything by Nigel Kneale The Brothers Grimm Hans Christian Anderson Enid Blyton ('... of Adventure' series) Pan/Fontana Books of Horror Michael Cox and his anthologies eg. Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories, etc My lonely and troubled childhood An overactive imagination An inability to interact socially with people My fears/phobias The little toy rubber monsters I had when I was a kid (seriously, don't laugh - I still have them!) The Garden of Earthly Delights/Bosch The Faery Feller's Master Stroke/Dadd Gustav Dore Salvador Dali Morecambe and Wise The Two Ronnies Jethro Tull (Ian Anderson lyrics) Not to mention seeing all you lot writing and getting published ... I'm jealous as hell!  | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.155.172.153 |
My life, my past, my ego...me really, thats what inspires me to write. Sad little bastard that I am. gcw | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.82.196 |
And Nigella, of course. | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.155.172.153 |
Of course! gcw | ||
| John Forth (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
Like Caroline, I've avoided contributing to this thread due to the fact that I'm not as officially writerly as the rest of you.  But, for what it's worth, here is an entirely random list of my formative influences: HG Wells (primarily The War of the Worlds) Stephen King John Wyndham HP Lovecraft Early Clive Barker JG Ballard T.E.D Klein Early Iain Banks (before he separated his sci-fi and non-sci-fi work) Ramsey Campbell 2000AD Action (ultra-violent 70s comic, including Hook-Jaw!) Alan Moore Hellraiser Alien Dawn of the Dead A Clockwork Orange If... Transformers Action Force Silent Hill (the games, not the film) Pink Floyd Mogwai Life as an army brat General disappointment with the human race Cold bright days in September/October Pessimism |