A list of my influences, arranged in alphabetical order:

Karl Barth
Ingmar Bergman
Wes Craven
David Cronenberg
Philip K. Dick
Jesus of Nazareth
Peter Kropotkin
H. P. Lovecraft
David Lynch
Guy Maddin
Karl Marx
Rod Serling
Paul Tillich
Leo Tolstoy
Simone Weil
Alfred North Whitehead

These are all filmmakers, writers, philosophers, and theologians whose individual perspectives/aesthetics have influenced, in big ways and small, directly and indirectly, my own. From Whitehead, Weil, and Tillich I’ve gained my understanding of God and creation, and it is this God which operates in the shared multiverse of my stories. From Barth I’ve gained my understanding of evil, and I find this understanding of evil best represented through the eldritch abominations/deities of Lovecraft and the body horror of Cronenberg. From Jesus, Kropotkin, Tolstoy, and a lesser degree Marx, an ideal humanity and civilization. From Lynch, themes of duality and absurdism. And I could be here all day, futilely trying and failing to cogently convey why these creators resonate with me.