My writing has been influenced by experiences drawn from the University of Iowa Summer Writer's Festival, by authors like John Irving, Michael Chabon, Steven King, Wally Lamb, Chuck Palahniuk, Kurt Vonnegut Jr, Cormac McCarthy, Margaret Atwood, Susan Taylor Chehak, Jonis Agee, and many others. The human brain is hard-wired in narrative story and though few people think exactly alike, there are always those common resonances that can be explored and mined through good writing.