The Traveling Pants of Inspiration

Does this award make my butt look big?

Vesper has bestowed upon the Vortex the Sisterhood Award, not because I steal her makeup and wear her unmentionables outside my clothing at the first sign of a date coming to pick her up, but because something about navel-gazing philosophy, time travel and countless chest hair references gives her pause. Oh ye of windswept poetry, I am honored you feel a kinship. Thank you!

And to go along with the coveted derriere award, she invited me to play a round of Who-Were-My-Writing-Inspirations? This was an activity I did five years ago when I took a writing class on voice. Instead of following trends and being at the mercy of a publishing market no one can predict with any certainty, we were told the true writer within could be found in the cross-hairs of things we love. Here are the 25 authors who have had the most impact on my writing:

1. Kathleen Woodiwiss
2. Peter Abrams
3. Stephen King
4. Herbert Leiberman
5. LaVyrle Spencer
6. Dwight Swain
7. Victoria Holt
8. Dean Koontz
9. Jude Devereaux
10. Madeline L'Engle
11. Edgar Allan Poe
12. Lois Duncan
13. Robert Heinlein
14. Richard Matheson
15. Daphne du Maurier
16. Nathaniel Hawthorne
17. Agatha Christie
18. Anne Stuart
19. Susan Carroll
20. H.G. Wells
21. Michael Crichton
22. Julie Garwood
23. Kay Hooper
24. Natalie Goldberg
25. Jules Verne

Kind of a gothic, Twilight Zone meets luuuve, right? Who could have guessed that?

Because the Vortex shows no sexism and brotherhoods linked by flowery, bedazzled denim can be rewarding, too, I invite everyone-readers and writers-to leave two seemingly-opposite-sides-of-the-spectrum authors who have inspired you in the comments so that we may snag you in our literary cross-hairs.