Okay. Facebook friends have been passing around their top 15 authors who most influenced them and/or their writing. Frank Peretti was my first thought. Reading Frank is like watching a movie. Tim George called his list eclectic, and I agreed that was a suitable word for mine as well. Citing Flaubert, Dostoevsky, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and D. H. Lawrence as some of my A-listers, I never completed a list.
Instead I thought of non-influential authors. Those who garner raves, and I can't stand their writing. So let me tell you the immediate three who popped into my mind: Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. I have no fondness for Hemingway's sterile writing, but I maintain he was a good storyteller. I can't even say I liked Faulkner's stories, and I certainly found no enjoyment in his writing. Really don't have anything good to say about Hawthorne's voice, style, or his depressing stories. No desire to write like any of them.
What makes my first thoughts of Peretti impressive is that my writing chops were primarily developed on those long ago authors I mentioned. Peretti still stands out as the total package with the added dimension of spiritual insights woven exquisitely into his stories.
How 'bout you? Any non-influential authors come to mind?
Lord, you love us all. You disperse talent and gifting. I need your touch in my stories. Otherwise they're worthless. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
Into the Fire 
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