Inspirations
I didn’t think any at all about my literary influences before or during my writing of Jake Doe Burning Bright. It wasn’t until the draft was finished that I allowed myself that indulgence. The truth is that while I used to be a big reader, I haven’t read a lot of fiction lately. I’m not proud of the fact that I’ve spent more of my leisure time in recent years watching quality TV and an occasional movie. But there are a lot of excellent shows out there, and they’ve served as a source of connection among me and my three young-adult sons. So I don’t regret my hiatus from fiction too much.
What I’ve also done in recent years is consume a LOT of news and current events. I would say way too much, but all of that gained understanding of current events, politics, and the forces that are shaping our world has informed my perspective and provided fuel for the story of Jake Doe. Jake Doe was first born from a place of anger and outrage. I’ll have more to say about that down the line, but let’s not go there in my second blog post. Smile.
Back to books... Books were always a big part of my life. As the son of two schoolteachers, I learned to love reading at a very early age. My Mom loves to tell the story about the summer that I lost interest in reading, and she decided to pay me a quarter for every book I read just to keep me motivated. I think she may be spinning a bit of a tale, because in my memory, I always loved to read. A Wrinkle in Time was an early childhood favorite. It’s been fun to see that book pop up as I’ve researched different genres around the relative quality of time. That seed was planted early. I also absolutely loved the Chronicles of Narnia. Aslan was a Christ-like figure to the Pevensie kids, and I ate up every word.
I added an Acknowledgement for my four high school English teachers from Darlington School in Rome, Georgia. That was fun. They were all talented and passionate teachers, and I fell in love with much of the literature we read and studied. Two of the writers I enjoyed discovering as a teenager were Ernest Hemingway and Flannery O’Connor. I recognize an echo of Flannery O’Connor in Chapter 2: Waylon and an echo of Hemingway in the food scene in Chapter 31: Dark Sea. I’m in no way comparing my literary talents to these two greats, but the subconscious influence is pretty obvious to me upon reflection.
As a young man in my early twenties, I gravitated toward John Grisham, Stephen King, Nelson DeMille, and Ken Follett. A Time to Kill, The Stand, The Charm School, and A Key to Rebecca are my respective favorites from each of these powerhouse action and suspense writers. I also discovered Pat Conroy and his amazing storylines and prose. I read all his books and would rank my top three favorites as The Prince of Tides, The Great Santinini, and The Water is Wide, his first novel set on Daufuskie Island, an island I’ve had the pleasure of visiting and exploring a few times.
If I had to choose a favorite author during this formative time of my life, however, it would be John Irving. A Prayer for Owen Meany is perhaps my favorite book of all-time. There are some obvious parallels to Jake Doe’s story. I won’t say anymore. Cider House Rules, The Hotel New Hampshire, and The World According to Garp are also incredible novels. I haven’t read Queen Esther yet, but it’s at the top of my reading list. Thank you, Mr. Irving, for making me laugh and cry. Sometimes on the same page of text! Not too many authors have that gift.
Finally, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand was also a book that really impacted me as a young man that may have shaped some of my world views that eventually contributed to me writing Jake Doe. I was a lot more innocent and impressionable back then, so I really should reread Atlas Shrugged today and capture a fresh impression.
Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy deserves its own paragraph because that series, along with The Chronicles of Narnia, are some of the very few books I’ve read more than once. In fact I can’t recall any other fiction books I can say that about. I guess I’ve always had a soft spot for an epic fantasy series.
Years back as books shifted to e-readers and more and more friends de-cluttered their display shelves in their homes of paperbacks and hardbacks, something inspired me to create a “best-of” shelf in my house where I displayed twenty of my favorite books for friends to peruse. The idea was that they could “check out” a book if they spotted something they were interested in reading. I gave out quite a few, and I don’t think ever got one back. So it became a “gift shelf”, but that was OK with me.
I had a couple of rules as I assembled my twenty books. No more than one book per author. And try to cover a variety of genres. Many of the books I mentioned above were stars on the shelf. Here are a few more that I haven’t mentioned: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon. The Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Conversations with God: Book 1 by Neale Donald Walsch. Awaken the Buddha Within by Lama Surya Das. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. Atonement by Ian McKewan. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. The Untethered Soul by Michael Sanger.
I’d heartily commend every book I’ve listed in this post to you. All these authors caused me to feel something special, something deeply moving, when I read their works. And because of that, all of them, to one degree or another, shaped who I am as a human. That’s the gift of a good book, right?
