The "motivations" behind my writing are simple. I write because the stories are there, waiting to be told. The -influences- to my writing are another matter entirely. I've been reading voraciously since I was old enough to know that there were words on a page that meant something. Everything I've ever read, seen, heard, or experienced influences my writing. I have certain authors whose work is especially precious to me -- Robert Heinlein, Anne McCaffrey, Ayn Rand, James Michener, Mercedes Lackey -- but I would no more write THEIR story than they would write MINE... even if an -idea- is open in the world at a given time, and lots of individuals are exposed to that idea, each person who chooses to create will create something entirely different -from- that idea... in big ways, or small ways, we all write our -own- stories. My stories tend to be heavily character-oriented, whether I'm writing a piece of philosophical science fiction like the Illiyan Chronicles series, a more lighthearted series like the upcoming "Flying Abbadon" steampunk space opera, or a horror microshort like "Snow".  To me, the essence of existence is found in that small space where will meets action -- and to me, that is best depicted through the character, and the choices a given character makes when insinuating hirself into the flow of the Universe.