Back to my roots
I'm kind of like James Ellroy in that I don't read a lot of contemporary writers, because, as he said, I don't want them to influence how I write. The past few years I've been forcing myself to expand my reading circle to present day. I've read some good books, but I'm heading back to my roots, re-reading the classics that really inspired and influenced me to be a writer. Heavy on first half of the 20th century, some mid 1800's and then William the Bard, Chaucer the Rogue and a few other scoundrels. For example: My daughter was assigned THE GREAT GATSBY in her class this week so it gave me a reason to read it again. Only gets better and better. In my opinion the truly great American novel as it is all about the American Dream: all sides of it, the lure, the ability to come out of nowhere and remake yourself into whatever you want but also the corruption and hypocrisy of it all. You can never truly outrun who you are and where you came from. This is one of th
