I am - of course - a life-long, starving writer.  I am self-educated in the Liberal Arts and my primary influence has always been Shakespeare, but Poe is in me as well.  However, I do not try to imitate them, just learn from them. The motivation for Stories of the Life of Tiffany varies from story to story.  The first (Nevermore) is a morality play, but its sequel (Sundown) will be horror/drama/comedy while the intended third (The Gates of Babylon) commences her adult life and is action/adventure/scifi.  I wrote Nevermore to make a point about human nature and folly, but the rest are more just for fun (until In Time, where I have another point to make).  Primarily, the motivation is just to tell good stories about a very complex character I have always had in mind.