Coffee With David

I have recently started an experiment for a separate blog (see my website under non-fiction “What do Favorite Authors May Say About You”) to explore what a writer should write. With my experiment I proposed, does your choice in writers that you like to read say about what you should write. I pondered on this, especially when I like to read multiple genres…how many authors do I consider to be favorites and why.

So here is my list and I have put Wikipedia links next to them in case a reader of this blog does not recognize them. These are a list of poets, novelist, screen writers and playwrights (in no particular order):

Isaac Asimov http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov
Alex Haley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Haley
Arthur C. Clarke http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke
Lin Yutang http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lin_Yutang
Charles W. Chesnutt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_W._Chesnutt
PD James http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PD_James
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Conan_Doyle
David Weber http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Weber
Ben Bova http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Bova
Jules Verne http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_Verne
Erle Stanley Gardner http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erle_Stanley_Gardner
Gene Roddenberry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Roddenberry
J. R. R. Tolkien http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien
Alexandre Dumas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Dumas
J. Michael Straczynski http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Michael_Straczynski
Edgar Allan Poe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Allan_Poe
C. S. Lewis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Lewis
Joss Whedon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joss_Whedon
Walt Whitman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Whitman
C. S. Forester http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Forester
Herman Wouk http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Wouk
W. E. B. Du Bois http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._E._B._Du_Bois
William Faulkner http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Faulkner
Ian Fleming http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Fleming
John Masefield http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Masefield
George Lucas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lucas
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Pavlovich_Chekhov
Tom Clancey http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Clancey
William Shakespeare http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare
Sydney Sheldon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_sheldon
Fyodor Dostoyevsky http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fyodor_Dostoyevsky
Louis L'Amour http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_L%27Amour
Tennessee Williams http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_Williams
Leo Tolstoy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy
Victor Hugo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Hugo
Sinclair Lewis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Lewis
Mary Shelly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Shelly
Bram Stoker http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bram_Stoker
Kan Shimozawa (no wiki)
Robert Louis Stevenson (Personal note: I am named after two of his characters) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Louis_Stevenson
Clive Cussler http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Cussler
Charles Dickens http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Dickens
Alan Dean Foster http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Dean_Foster
Georges Joseph Christian Simenon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Joseph_Christian_Simenon
Homer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer
Jack Higgins (Harry Patterson) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Patterson
HG Wells http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HG_Wells
Ellis Peters (Edith Pargeter) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Pargeter
Agatha Christie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agatha_Christie
Alistair MacLean http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alistair_MacLean
Robert A. Heinlein http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein
Lindsay Davis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindsay_Davis
Baroness Emma Orczy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroness_Emma_Orczy
Johnston McCulley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnston_McCulley
Ed McBain (Evan Hunter) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Hunter
Terry Brooks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Brooks
Anne McCaffrey http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_McCaffrey
Anne Rice http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Rice
Glen A. Larson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_A._Larson
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_Quinn_Yarbro

After I looked at the list and researched what I didn’t know about their writing and what themes they focused on, I asked myself—are these themes showing up in my work. The answer is subconsciously yes. Their themes touch something in me, stir my soul and they are what I know. As every writer knows, you write what you know. Not your 9 to 5 job, unless it is really thrilling, or your life as most people do not live a life of adventure. It is the themes of the works that attract you that you know well and are a port of you and attracts you –at least me—to the art.

If you are a writer, try this experiment. See if you find what I did…that their work beats like the tell-tale-heart under the floor boards of your work.
Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for information on the stories and blogs I write.