When you work in a particular genre, you can't help but be influenced by those who went before you, because what they've done becomes the air you breathe, the food you eat. Some authors must just block this out. When asked who influenced their work, they answer, “Oh, Melville, Tolstoy, The Bhagavad Gita.” Huh? Why not just say it plain: “Hey, no one influenced me! I’m a fuckin' genius!”

Maybe so. But my own thought is that in fantasy writing, "genius" is the art of clever theft. Clever, in this instance, doesn’t mean not getting caught, but commiting the theft in broad daylight and still getting away with it. Afterf all, fantasy readers come to a new book with a specific expectation—that its story will be at once recognizable for what it is and, at the same time, feel completely fresh, new, different.

Actually, thinking about this, I see that that word "clever" has another dimension — not getting seduced by an admired writer into being little more than their epigone, gunsel, what have you. You'll understand what I mean if you read my section on Tolkien, but what I'm talking about here is not what you consciously steal but what clings to you like pollen, and that you don't even see.

Anyway, the most immediate influence on The Cronnex was Jim Grimesly’s Kirith Kirin and, at a further distance, The Lord of the Rings. And, once I had finished the first draft of Jessan and started on Niccas, I got interested in other gay-themed fantasy writing, and started reading Lynn Flewellen’s Nightrunner Series, which, it turned out, gave me lots to think about. So, to start with, here’s some thoughts about how those three writers have affected me.