Influences

"He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I know."--Abraham Lincoln

Out of boredom, I began compiling a list of things that have traceably influenced my writing. Some of the traces are in juvenalia that, if I'm lucky, will never glimpse the light of day. The traces also vary from entire conceptions to chance sentences. I make no claims as to merit; influences are influences.

This is by no means complete; I'm sure there are influences I am not yet conscious of, and I didn't start recordkeeping until well after 3rd grade.

Nonfiction

To organize the morass, I've separated these into quick & dirty categories.

Anthropology

Roger E. Axtell, ed. Do's and Taboo's from around the World.
Marvin Harris. The Sacred Cow and the Abominable Pig.
Reay Tannahil. A History of Food.

Art(s) & Crafts

E. Richard Churchill. Fabulous Paper Airplanes.
Ursula Vernon. It Made Sense at the Time: Selected Sketches.

History & Politics

Geoffrey Blainey. Causes of War.
John Boswell. Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality.
Conrad Cairns. Medieval Castles.
The Diagram Group. Weapons.
Israel Drapkin. Crime and Punishment in the Ancient World.
James E. Dunnigan & Albert A. Nofi. Victory and Deceit: Dirty Tricks at War.
David Greenberg. Nixon's Shadow.
Thomas L. Hankins. Science and the Enlightenment.
Victor David Hanson. The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece.
Dorothy Hartman. Lost Country Life.
Erik Hildinger. Warriors of the Steppe.
Peter James & Nick Thorpe. Ancient Inventions. Ancient Mysteries.
Paul Johnson. A History of the American People.
John Keegan. A History of Warfare. The Mask of Command. The Face of Battle.
John Keegan & Richard Holmes. Soldiers.
Mark Kurlansky. Salt: A World History.
Jay Luvaas, ed./trans. Frederick the Great on the Art of War.
Niccolo Machiavelli. The Prince.
Guido Majno. The Healing Hand.
Albert Manucy. Artillery through the Ages.
William H. McNeill. Keeping Together in Time: Dance and Drill in Human History.
Geoffrey Parker, ed. Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare.
Louis G. Perez. Daily Life in Early Modern Japan.
Howard Reid & Robert Croucher. The Way of the Warrior: The Paradox of the Martial Arts.
Mitchell Reid. Civil War Soldiers.
Conrad Schirokauer. A Brief History of Chinese Civilization.
Stephen Turnbull. Samurai Invasion: Japan's Korean War.
Sun Tzu. The Art of War.
Paul K. Walker. Engineers of Independence: A Documentary History of the Army Engineers in the American Revolution, 1775-1783.
Lynn White, Jr. Medieval Technology and Social Change.
Colin Wilson. The Mammoth Book of Crime.

Linguistics & Langyages

David Crystal. Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language.
Lockwood. Introduction to Stratificational Linguistics.
Walter Meyer. Aliens and Linguists.
Fredrick Wheelock. Wheelock's Latin.

Mathematics

Richard V. Andrée. Selections from Modern Abstract Algebra.
Phillip J. Davis & Reuben Hersh. The Mathematical Experience.
A.K. Dewdney. The Armchair Universe.
James Gleick. Chaos.
Douglas Hofstadter. Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid.
Georges Ifrah. The Universal History of Numbers.
George Gheverghese Joseph. Crest of the Peacock.
Michio Kuga. Galois' Dream.
Leapfrogs Group. Images of Infinity.
Sylvia Nasar. A Beautiful Mind.
John Allen Paulos. Innumeracy.
Ivars Peterson. The Mathematical Tourist; Islands of Truth.
William Poundstone. Labyrinths of Reason.
Manfred Schroeder. Fractals, Chaos, Power Laws.
Raymond Smullyan. 2000 B.C. Satan, Cantor, and Infinity.
Alexander Sossinsky. Knots.
Thomas & Finney. Calculus.
M. Mitchell Waldrop. Complexity.

Music

The Diagram Group. Musical Instruments.

Mythology & Folklore

Padraic Colum. The Children of Odin. The Golden Fleece.
Phil Cousineau. A World Treasury of Riddles.
Hilary Roe Metternich. Mongolian Folktales.
Zong In-Sob. Folk Tales from Korea.

Nature & Natural History

Marguerite Henry. All About Horses.
Barbara Hurd. Entering the Stone: Caves and Feeling through the Dark.

Parapsychology

Jerome Clark. Encyclopedia of Strange and Unexplained Phenomena.
Michael Talbot. The Holographic Paradigm.

Psychology

Charles Hampden-Turner. Maps of the Mind.
Stanley Milgram. Obedience to Authority.
Philip G. Zimbardo, Ebbe B. Ebbesen & Christina Maslach. Influencing Attitudes and Changing Behavior: An Introduction to Method, Theory and Applications of Social Control and Personal Power.
Daniel Keyes. The Minds of Billy Milligan.

Science & Technology

Joel Arem. Gems and Jewelry.
Wayne Biddle. A Field Guide to Germs.
Paul Davies. About Time: Einstein's Unfinished Revolution.
James Dunnigan. Digital Soldiers.
Lewis Carroll Epstein. Relativity Visualized.

Writing

Piers Anthony. Bio of an Ogre.
Orson Scott Card. Characters and Viewpoint. How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy.
J.N. Williamson, ed. How to Write Tales of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror.

Miscellaneous

R.C. Bell. Board and Table Games [of Many Civilizations?]
The Diagram Group. Musical Instruments.
John McPhee. "The Search for Marvin Gardens."
[Some U.S. agency?] Fire in Your Home.

Fantasy

Just a note: series are indicated in ALL CAPS, and I've tried to pick out any particular book of the series that I've found, ah, influencing.

Lloyd Alexander. WESTMARK TRILOGY: The Kestrel.
Peter S. Beagle. The Last Unicorn.
Jorge Luis Borges. "The Book of Sand."
Marion Zimmer Bradley. Firebrand.
Orson Scott Card. Hart's Hope.
David Day. The Emperor's Panda.
Pamela Dean. Tam Lin.
David Eddings. ELENIUM: The Diamond Throne.
Harlan Ellison. "The Deathbird."
Michael Ende. The Neverending Story.
Alan Garner. Red Shift.
Simon R. Green. Blue Moon Rising.
Barbara Hambly. The Dark Hand of Magic. The Silent Tower.
Geraldine Harris. SEVEN CITADELS: Prince of the Godborn; Children of the Wind; The Dead Kingdom; The Seventh Gate.
P.C. Hodgell. KENCYRATH: "Stranger Blood."
Robert Holdstock. Mythago Wood.
Steve Jackson. SORCERY!: Shamutanti Hills; Kharé--Cityport of Traps; The Seven Serpents; The Crown of Kings.
Mike Jeffries. Glitterspike Hall.
Kij Johnson. The Fox Woman.
Robert Jordan. The Eye of the World.
Guy Gavriel Kay. The Summer Tree. Tigana.
Stephen King. Eyes of the Dragon.
Ellen Kushner & Delia Sherman. The Fall of the Kings.
Henry Kuttner. The Dark World.
Ursula K. Le Guin. "Kore 87."
Madeleine L'Engle. A Wrinkle in Time; A Swiftly Tilting Planet.
C.S. Lewis. CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
David Lomax. "How to Write an Epic Fantasy."
Laurie J. Marks. ELEMENTAL LOGIC: Fire Logic.
Patricia A. McKillip. A Song for the Basilisk. In the Forests of Serre.
Robin McKinley. The Hero and the Crown.
Shirley Rousseau Murphy. Nightpool; The Ivory Lyre; The Dragonbards.
Meredith Ann Pierce. A Gathering of Gargoyles. Birth of the Firebringer.
Elizabeth Marie Pope. The Perilous Gard.
Terry Pratchett. DISCWORLD: Mort.
Joel Rosenberg. The Sleeping Dragon.
J.R.R. Tolkien. The Silmarillion.
Elizabeth E. Wein. Winter Prince.
Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman. DRAGONLANCE CHRONICLES: Dragons of Winter Night. DRAGONLANCE LEGENDS: War of the Twins; Test of the Twins.
Liz Williams. The Poison Master.
Elizabeth Winthrop [?]. A Castle in the Attic.
Roger Zelazny. CHRONICLES OF AMBER: Nine Princes in Amber.
[?] "The Lady or the Tiger."
[?] "The Necklace of Princess Fiorimonde."

Science Fiction

Just a note: series are indicated in ALL CAPS, and I've tried to pick out any particular book of the series that I've found, ah, influencing.

Poul Anderson. Operation Chaos.
Piers Anthony. APPRENTICE ADEPT: Split Infinity.
John Barnes. Orbital Resonance.
Greg Bear. "Hardfought." Queen of Angels.
Marion Zimmer Bradley. DARKOVER: Hawkmistress!; Heritage of Hastur; Sharra's Exile.
Lois McMaster Bujold. VORKOSIGAN SAGA: Cordelia's Honor; The Vor Game.
Orson Scott Card. Ender's Game; Speaker for the Dead.
Jack L. Chalker. Midnight at the Well of Souls.
C.J. Cherryh. Cyteen. FOREIGNER: Foreigner; Invader.
Tony Daniel. "A Dry, Quiet War."
Charles V. De Vet & Katherine MacLean. "Second Game."
David Feintuch. SEAFORT SAGA: Fisherman's Hope.
C.S. Friedman. In Conquest Born.
Simon R. Green. DEATHSTALKER SAGA: Deathstalker Legacy.
Peter F. Hamilton. The Reality Dysfunction.
David Herter. Ceres Storm.
Douglas Hill. Galactic Warlord.
Jack McDevitt. A Talent for War.
Anne McCaffrey. PERN: Dragonflight; Dragonquest.
Cordwainer Smith. INSTRUMENTALITY OF MAN: "The Game of Rat and Dragon"; "Scanners Live in Vain."
Olaf Stapledon. Last and First Men.
Joan D. Vinge. The Snow Queen.
Carl West & Katherine MacLean. Dark Wing.
Liz Williams. Ghost Sister.
Gene Wolfe. BOOK OF THE NEW SUN.
John Wright. The Golden Age.
Timothy Zahn. "Cascade Point."
Roger Zelazny. "The Engine at Heartspring's Center."

Other Fiction

Margaret Wise Brown. Goodnight Moon. (children's picture book).
Barbara Hambly. Sold Down the River (mystery).
M.E. Kerr. Fell (YA).
Rudyard Kipling. Just So Stories.
Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of Genji. [Seidensticker's abridged translation.]
Donald Sobol. ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN (mystery).
Paul White. Jungle Doctor's Stories.
[?] THE THREE INVESTIGATORS (mystery).

Poetry

Kim Sowol. "Jindallae" (Azaleas).
Thomas Macaulay. Horatius.
Mary Oliver. "Wild Geese."
Edgar Allan Poe. "Annabel Lee."

Other, Period

Dan Schmidt. For a Change (interactive fiction).
Emily Short. Pytho's Mask (interactive fiction).
Bearers of Jade. Legend of the Five Rings d10 setting supplement (roleplaying game).
Peter Tchaikovsky. Swan Lake (ballet suite).
Eye of the Beholder II (computer game).
Neon Genesis Evangelion (animé series).
Planescape: Torment (computer game).
Virtual On (arcade game).
Gundam Wing (animé series).
Rurouni Kenshin (animé series).
Shoujo Kakumei Utena (animé series).
Angel (TV series).
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series).
Criminal Minds (TV series).
Firefly (TV series).
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (cartoon and movie).
CLAMP. CLOVER (manga).
Neil Gaiman. SANDMAN (graphic novels).
"Tam Lin" (Scottish ballad).

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