When folks find out I write novels (and with the second one on shelves in a few short months, I just love being able to say 'novels'), they usually gravitate toward a standard set of questions. "Where do you get your ideas?" is an oft-heard one, along with "How did you get published?" But maybe third on the list--definitely in the top five--is: "Who are your influences?"

The question, I suppose, people have in mind is: "What authors do you read?" And I'm happy to mention authors I've loved over the years: Stephen King, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Neil Gaiman, Elmore Leonard...these days, I can even point them to my page on LibraryThing, where I keep track of recent books--and all-time favorite books--I've read.

But the real answer to "Who are your influences" really goes much deeper than books, doesn't it? Last year, I was discussing books with another writer, wherein he observed that many writers today have obviously been inspired by comic books.

I have to say, I count myself among that group in some small measure. In my tween and early teen years, I spent many an hour in panel-by-panel study. At that time DC and Marvel were really the only two games in town, and I was always more partial to Marvel--their heroes seemed more angst-ridden, struggling with "real world" issues, while DC's heroes felt more idealistic. (Nothing wrong with that--the angsty stuff merely appealed more to my own adolescent mind.) The only DC comic I read with any regularity was Swamp Thing and, in all fairness, I quite loved that one. On the Marvel side, I was a fan of the X-Men, Silver Surfer (cribbed from one of my uncles), Iron Man, the Hulk, Dr. Strange, Conan, and a few lesser-known titles such as The Eternals.

But far and away, my two absolute favorites were Thor and Ghost Rider. I stayed with both over the span of a few years, collecting every issue. (I have high hopes for the new Nic Cage film version of Ghost Rider, but to be honest, I've not seen a comic book movie yet I absolutely loved. Nothing can compare with those carefully-studied panels of my youth.)

My penchant for Ghost Rider, it must be said, was probably fueled by my fascination with Evel Knievel, the real 70s superhero for boys my age, and he happened to hail from Butte, Montana--just a few hours from where I grew up. Even better, Evel was a blue collar guy, fresh from the dark mines and darker steets of Butte, who had risen to international prominence. Ghost Rider's and Thor's darker, more supernaturally-inspired elements were likely also fueled by my equal penchant for television series such as Rod Serling's Night Gallery and the original run of Kolchak: The Night Stalker.

Mix all these things together, and you get a concoction of the supernatural, tortured heroes who struggle with the evil inside themselves as much as the evil in their worlds, and "blue collar" personalities tackling long odds. Add my conversion to Christianity in my mid-20s, and you get an ongoing fascination with the mystical and spiritual elements of existence (which, in turn, probably started with my childhood love of Thor and Nordic mythology).

Now, think about it. My first book, "Waking Lazarus," was about a janitor who hides under a secret identity in a small Montana town, has died and been resurrected three times, and discovers he has powers that help him see into the lives of others. My second book, "The Dead Whisper On," is about a woman who is a former miner, living in Butte, recruited into a secret government network that works with "living" shadows.

Could my influences be any more transparent?

Why do I talk about all this? Partly because I still find it interesting, but partly because it's an answer to that original question so many paragraphs ago. Many of my literary influences weren't literary at all. They were real people, or comic book superheroes, or television characters, or even changing belief systems.

If you're a writer, it's great to read other writers--a lot of other writers--to find inspiration and motivation. But it's also worthwhile to recognize who else, and what else, have molded your writing sensibilities. You don't look for influences; more often, they find you.

So if you ask me who influenced me as a writer, don't be surprised when I say the Nordic God of Thunder.