Power to the Pen, Write On!

In anticipation of the inevitable question, "Where did you learn to write like that?" -- which is a polite way of saying, "You crazy, man" -- I have to confess that, where writing, and also editing, are concerned, I am completely self-taught. (Big surprise, huh?) However, I do have some role models, or at least "heroes of the written word". They include:

* Charles Dickens
* Mark Twain
* Robert Benchley
* P.J. O'Rourke
* Dave Barry
* Ann Coulter
* R. Emmett Tyrrell
* Dennis Miller (OK, make that "... and spoken word")
* The Onion
* Pat Buchanan
* Joseph Sobran
* Thomas Sowell
* George Will
* Bill Bryson

I have other heroes, but it would be pretentious to even hint that they are role models, since their genius is so unapproachable. They include:

* Dostoyevsky (in translation)
* Ayn Rand
* G. K. Chesterton
* Hilaire Belloc
* Joseph Conrad
* John Gardner
* John Barth
* Joyce Carol Oates
* F. Scott Fitzgerald
* Umberto Eco (in translation)
* Gabriel Garcia Marquez (in translation)

There are others, of course. So many others... and so little time. But you would be doing yourself a favor if you dropped whatever you are reading (unless it's this blog!) and picked up a book by any of the above. (Or in Miller's case, consult your TV Guide.) Great writing feeds the brain.