I don't read in other languages, which makes it difficult to really appreciate authors from other countries, but I have long been fascinated by La Comédie humaine, by  Honore de Balzac, and I've had in mind, for some time, a series of stories that are all set in the same community but are told from different points of view. The main character of one story appears as a secondary character in another story, people move in and out, and beneath it all is this little undertone of something not being quite right about the place.  I guess I am overly influenced by a childhood filled with Alfred Hitchcock films and television shows.   I watched "Outer Limits," "Twilight Zone," and "One Step Beyon." in their originals, and those are still the kind of stories I like best. 

I don't read Ruth Rendell for her plots--I couldn't tell you who was killed in any of them. What I liked was development of her detectives Wexford and Burden.  I enjoy Inspector Morse stories because Morse is such an interesting character...again, I had zero interest in the plots.  I used to like Dorothy Sayers until I realized I could always pick out the killer by what order she introduced her suspects into the story, but I still had a fondness for Lord Peter Wimsey, despite his preciousness (it had a lot to do with the atomosphere of the stories).  I'm watching the "Rosemary and Thyme" mystery series right now for the same reason...the plots are not very well thought out, but the friends are a lively pair and I am learning something about horticulture at the same time.

When I was much younger, I wrote a series of stories about an Amazonian group of women called the Midlanders, who lived between the Hireg and the Lowtry, and while it was certainly not based on reality, I never went the fairy and elf route with it. Strangely enough, the whole thing was built on a merging (in my imagination) of the history of the Roman Empire, and "War and Peace."  Nothing like being ambitious.  In fact, the stories were so elastic that I could throw any historic or theatrical mutation in and it would become absorbed into the mythos (I liked Shakespeare then and still do).  I expecially liked to crash space travelling Earthlings into the place and watch them struggle with the civilization from the point of view of the Midlanders. Sometimes they got out alive, sometimes they didn't.  I was in my "Star Trek" period so that got thrown into the mix.

I miss the giddy arrogance of youth.

I have to admit, I don't read much fiction now.  I try and I usually can't finish anything that's longer than a few pages.  It makes me a poor person to discuss literature because mine is all drawn upon a shaky memory.

DeeMarie: One of my children’s stories [one that I am working on illustrating] was read on the children’s hour on Public Broadcast Radio.  That's awesome!  I knew about your novel...I didn't know about your children's stories.  I tend to like children's books more than adult ones.  One of my favorites is Stellaluna, for many reasons.