I have always loved reading the classics. I was a Spanish and English double major in college, and I got a Master’s in Spanish literature largely thanks to Don Quixote.

Today, I am grateful for the classics that formed me: that helped to form my character (and characters), my voice, my writing style, my plots, and more.

• Miguel de Cervantes: it would be hard to overestimate the impact Cervantes has had on my life. As far as writing goes, anyone interested in point of view and narration MUST read Don Quixote. MUST.
• Victor Hugo: I often say that Les Miserables is my favorite book ever. Jean Valjean is a fictional saint. Hugo taught me some things about how to use (and not to use) providence as a theme in my own work. He also inspired a plot point or two in The Crimson League: The Fight for Hope
• J.R.R. Tolkien: I write fantasy. No more need be said, except this: PROVIDENCE. I know of no greater treatment in all of literature of the theme of providence, which is of great interest to me.
• J.K. Rowling: my love affair with fantasy began largely with Harry Potter. There is a scene (or sequence, more appropriately) in The Crimson League that is something of a homage to Sorcerer’s Stone / Philosopher’s Stone
• Jane Austen: her wit is inimitable. Her insight into human nature is only surpassed, I think, by Shakespeare.
• William Shakespeare: I can’t claim to have gleaned everything there is to glean from what I’ve read, or to have read half of what he wrote, but I mean . . . has anyone (Chaucer?) had equal impact on the English language?
• Fyodor Dostoevsky: The Brothers Karamazov is amazing on so many levels. This book taught me so much about human nature and about myself as a result. There are segments that are UTTERLY prophetic regarding our collapsing society.
• Agatha Christie: I love this lady. No one does a plot twist better.

What are your favorite classics? What did they teach you?