I'm the author of four novels to date.  Although my main reading interests are science fiction and fantasy, I ended up writing a series of paranormal romance/suspense books - it's just the story that came to me and refused to leave until I wrote it down! I've got a million influences; I can't even begin to list them all.  My favorite novel of all time is Mark Helprin's "Winter's Tale", but my writing stily could not possibly be farther away from his (and I wouldn't dare to mention myself on the same page, let alone the same paragraph as him).  Another favorite is Stephen R. Donaldson, but, again, I'm as far from his as you can get in terms of style. Most of my favorite writers are much more character-driven, and yet I'm a more plot-driven writer.