My motivations behind my writing is the belief that I have something to say, which would be the particular reason why anyone would ever open their mouth to speak.  My goal is to continue to have something to say, and to find an audience who will listen.  The writing part is laborious enough, but lacking of an audience is like the person speaking and not being heard.  It just takes so much unflappability to continue speaking. My influences are literature itself.  Being from the South, I do like Southern writers, but dislike the insinuation that a writer from the South must write like Faulkner, Welty or any of the others to be a Southern writer.  I did not choose my location.  I was born here.  I do not emulate being from a place where I am already at.  I do like Faulkner, Welty, Williams, Wright, Morris, Miller, and even Shakespeare, and even more which I am sure I will neglect to include.  Although some may dislike the classics because they have been overrated and worshipped, I still like them for the level of their skill, but do not blindly adore them.  I have enjoyed Science-Fiction from the old to recent; and have enjoyed the greater respectability which has been afforded to the writing of comic books (now termed graphic novels as a respectable label).  I was one of the quiet avid readers of the stories of Super-heroes when I was a boy.  My religious converion in 1989 has also been a major influence and, perhaps, the inspiration for me to write.  My writing is often adapted toward theology, but I intentionally avoid straight-line preaching which is a poor effect anyway.