I like to fancy that life has its way of influencing me as a writer.   It’s had its ups.  I have the most wonderful and understanding wife that I could ever have asked for who has given me four beautiful children.  Despite all odds, we continue to have a roof over our head, there is food to be had for every meal and we are even able to have a family night every now and again.

Life also has its downs.  Due to the meager scrapings we have managed to pull together, we have to live day by day.  Debt collectors are constantly knocking at our door and we often have to go without some of the things that most people take for granted; such as being able to buy new clothes, having simple repairs done to your vehicle and/or home, stocking up on groceries (as opposed to just having enough), going out to eat/the movies/any fun event.  Oh, who am I kidding.  We simply just go without.  My wife and I have been married for seven+ years and we still have yet to go on a honeymoon.  Our oldest son was born into the world with a serious condition that went unchecked, and when we later found it, we were blamed for it.  It cost us over seven months of our lives and three quarters of our sanity.

I’m not lying when I say that things are tough, and we have our fair share of downs, vs. the ups in our lives, but let’s not lose sight of the bigger picture here, and that’s the subject of this post.

What is your influence?

That  is the topic of this post and it is something that I wanted to touch on.  Is it a passion for what you do?  A particular interest in a certain subject?  Or, is it an emotional state?  Whenever I read any of Poe’s work, I can’t help but feel the emotional turmoil that he must have had gone through…  Or maybe I’m just empathizing because I know of how much he suffered with depression?

For me, and this is why I shared a little about myself with you, my writing is influenced largely in part by the negative experiences I’ve had to endure.  It’s also influenced by the type of people I’ve associated with for most of my life.  Now, I’m not saying that I’ve associated with some shady types, but I will say that when we were together, we would talk about things that most people would need therapy after upon hearing.

I have a warped, twisted, disgusting imagination, I know, but it really shines when I put a story behind it.  🙂

If, by now, you have read my book, my previous blog posts, stories and other things that I have shared, you will have noticed some things.

I’m not shy when it comes to the violence/gore/language and all other things that make horror so fun and appealing.

The violence comes from a background of having an abusive, self-destructing father.  It also comes from having an abusive step-father, who berated and put us down on a regular basis.  The blood/gore comes from my passion for all things horror.  The more disgusting and depraved it is, the better.  And finally, my lack of restraint when it comes to language?  Well, that comes from the company I choose, as well as a combination of the latter two examples.

All of these things influence me to some degree or another.  While they might be enough to break most people, or send them down the same path as their predecessors, I’ve chosen to learn from them and dedicate my time to creating some particularly nasty things.

Yep, I said nasty.  I chose that word because it’s something that people can identify with when they don’t like to see or read the things I’ve been talking about.  It’s a common descriptor that works.  But you know what?  I LIKE it.  It amuses me and I shan’t stop.  I will go on writing these truly horrid tales about monsters, be they mythical, or (as in the case of my blog story ‘She Has A Pretty Face Though’) human, I will go on perfecting what is deftly becoming my craft.

I believe that what influences you, brings the best out of you as well.  Seems like common sense to me, so why stray from the path?

Why indeed.

You see, what I have been doing right now is something I’m comfortable with.  I’m using the things I’ve known to create stories that fit.  I’m familiar enough with it that it just comes to me.  Yeah, just as the Grand Puba of Mathematics could rip you a new one with a Euclidean algorithm, I can simply write a description about ripping you a new one.

Kinda demented when you think about it, but hey.  Do what you know, right?

Except that shouldn’t always be right, should it?

I think that sometimes you have to jump on the other side of the fence from time to time, if you are to truly appreciate the things you know.

In this case, I will be doing away with some of the elements I have described.  Once I am done with the ‘Ballad of John Rizzerio’ trilogy, and after I polish up some of the short stories I will be sharing as a collection, I’m going to step away from Horror for a bit and into something that I’ve only experienced as a pen and paper game; Medieval Fantasy.

Yep.  Knights, Wizards, Magic, mythical creatures…  The whole shebang.  Obviously, my current style of writing won’t work for this.  Furthermore, I’m hoping to reach a broader audience with it as well.  Tone it down some?  Why yes.  I believe I will, thank you.

I’ll be working with an entirely different beast than what I have been, but if you’ve read my excerpts from ‘The Box’, by now, you might already see that I’ve been getting my feet wet, as it were.

Yes, I’ll be out of my element and writing about things that I have no experience with.  But that’s the best part.  I’ll truly be creating at that point and I’m excited at the prospect.

I draw from my experiences and I use them to create (or destroy) by using my imagination.  I’ve always loved a good story, but the great ones come from a mind that has been influenced by something.  Now, whether that’s an emotion, a physical/mental trauma, or coming from something else entirely is up to the individual.

I know that I will be challenged when I’m outside of my comfort zone, and maybe that’s really what this is all about, but I’ll tell you what.  I love a good challenge.

So…

What’s your influence?  (And, would (or have) you ever write outside of it?)