Then there's the stuff I read in High School: Crichton, King and Barker. Yes, yes, I know...anyway, I loved Michael Crichton's books with all of their scientific explanations. Stephen King wrote some pretty damn interesting stories. It, The Stand. Good stories. And then there's Clive Barker. Really weird stories, very elegant prose. The Great and Secret Show, Imajica. Good stuff. Somewhere in there is when I decided I wanted to write. Books, for me, beat the hell out of tv and movies.