Hi! I really enjoyed your post about your writing process (or I guess your answer?) It was really thorough and lovely 🥰 If you're still taking questions, I'm curious to know which authors/books have inspired you. (I think I read one post about Cormac McCarthy, but I'm curious to hear about any others 😊)

gio!!! hello! 🥰 i was so rambly but it makes me happy to know you enjoyed it! i'm always open to questions because i'll take any excuse to talk 😆

i'll confess that i don't read as many books as i ought to... it's true that cormac mccarthy's the orchard keeper inspired my username! ("—as if the very air had gone to wine.") as for authors that more directly influenced my writing, i have to admit richard siken's crush was a very formative influence, of which "scheherazade" is my favorite ❤️ (i think this makes it obvious that i was urged into writing by being on tumblr 10 years ago LOL). i'm also an enjoyer of pablo neruda, mary oliver, and william carlos williams, but i'm not as dedicated a poetry reader as i also ought to be...

honestly? my biggest inspirations are other fic writers. among the biggest is gyzym—who is on ao3 but also here on tumblr, and as a young writer i constantly turned to his work for inspiration. i remember reading this post about arachnophobia and this post about a book falling in love with its reader so, so many times. idk. i'm pretty sure he's like 40% of the reason i started writing.

another writer i admire and have drawn so much inspiration from is brella on ao3. some of their fics are like, my favorite ever. their prose is so... lovingly crafted, i can't find the words to describe it. i also love coloredink on ao3, particularly their final fantasy xii fics. they dig into canon in the most delicious way.

i also have to mention my spouse @qorktrees, aka artenon on ao3. if gyzym is the reason i started writing, artenon is the reason i'm the writer i am now. reading their fics taught me so much about narration, about parsing emotions and thoughts, about how to envision a character's inner world. i needed that. i still think about it, even now.

i think i learn a little bit from every writer i meet (yourself included, you know!!!). i'm lucky enough to be surrounded by so many skilled folks. people still surprise me, after all these years. it's awesome.