Influences & Inspirations: JASPER KENT

In this latest instalment of the Civilian-Reader “Influences & Inspirations” series of guest posts, Jasper Kent walks through the Russian history that has inspired his three novels to date (Twelve, Thirteen Years Later, and newly-published The Third Section), and discusses the inspirations for the fourth book in the Danilov Quintet, which will be released next year.

Influences & Inspirations: NICK LAKE

Nick Lake is the author of Blood Ninja and Lord Oda’s Revenge, two novels set in 16th Century featuring vampire ninjas. I recently reviewed Blood Ninja on the site, and thought Nick’s influences and inspirations would be particularly interesting.

Luckily, he was able to write a piece, which I can share with you all here.

[Nick has also agreed to an interview, so check back next week for more.]

Influences & Inspirations: SARAH CAWKWELL

Continuing our series of guest posts about influences and inspirations (read the open invitation), I present you with our second author!

Sarah Cawkwell has written several short stories set in Games Workshop’s grim-dark 41st millennium. Her first full-length novel for the Black Library, The Gildar Rift, is due out in December 2011 (and is much anticipated here at Civilian-Reader – it features Huron Blackheart, one of the most colourful Chaos characters in Warhammer 40,000 lore).

You can catch up with the slightly obscure adventures of what it’s like to be a genre fiction writer at Sarah’s great blog, “Pyroriffic” (which is also her Twitter handle). So, without further ado, let me pass things over to Sarah…

Influences & Inspirations: MYKE COLE

A little while back, I posted an open invitation to any writers, publishers, and bloggers who might want to write for Civilian-Reader’s first (of hopefully many) guest post series “Influences & Inspirations”. The idea was to allow them the opportunity to write about the books, series, and authors who inspired them to read and write.

There has been some great interest in the question (so keep an eye out for more posts, coming soon), and I am happy to bring you the first offering, from author MYKE COLE, who’s debut novel – Control Point – will be published in February 2012. So, without further ado, I shall pass things over to Myke…

Call for Guest Posts (Influences & Inspirations)

Recently I’ve been putting out some feelers via Twitter regarding guest posts for Civilian-Reader, and a few people have asked me about possible themes, questions or topics I had in mind. This, actually, was a problem, as I tend to be one of those people who is interested in most things and particularly keen to know what author and publishers have sloshing about in their heads at any given time – be it thoughts on the genre(s), writing, world-building, issue areas, and innumerable other potential topics.

While thinking about this yesterday, however, I was reminded of a discussion a few months back about the lack of reviews for ‘older’ novels, and how many great novels just don’t get mentioned online because they’ve been out a long time. So, I kept coming back to the subject of influences and inspirations:

Which author, series, or novel was the most influential to you as a writer, publisher, or agent (or whoever)?

It’s one of the questions I always ask authors in my interviews, but it’s also something I think could use more space.

Therefore, I extend the offer to any author, or member of the publishing industry, that if they would like to feature on Civilian-Reader, and need a topic (if you have your own, by all means go with that), I am keen to feature posts that highlight and discuss authors, series, and novels that inspired you to write.

Any takers? Email me at: civilian.reader[at]hotmail.co.uk