I grew up loving comic books and science fiction movies. As a child of the 60s, TV was a dominant part of my life and the only reading I ever did was comics.  Superman and Batman were my early favorites, but I gradually moved into “team” books and stories.  When I was in grade-school, the Legion of Super-Heroes was my favorite.  The heroes were all teen-age kids who came from many different worlds, each with a unique power.  Lightning Lad could shoot bolts from his hands, Ferro Kid could turn into solid iron and steel, Saturn Girl could change the gravity around items or people making it impossible to move. High school diverted my attention for a bit (sports, girlfriend, etc), but I started reading comics again in college.  Team stories were still the most interesting to me and The Avengers and The Uncanny X-Men became my favorites.  Looking back at the Dragonstone Stories that I’ve now written, I can see the influences from my comic book reading days.  The extended family of Mandy Mandez is very much like a comic book “team”.

After college, my career and family consumed my time.  My wife and I would still attend movies and the SyFy films were my favorites: Star Wars, Star Trek, all of the versions of Superman and Batman movies, etc.  I don’t recall any specific movies about magic or witches but, boy! – then Harry Potter shows up.  My daughter made me read the first Harry Potter book and I was hooked from the start.  And I really enjoyed the movies, too.  Writing my own stories about witches and wizards, I was constantly comparing my work to the Potter series, using it to spawn my own ideas while making sure I wasn’t just doing the same thing.  I pay homage to JK Rowling in a line or two of the book (maybe you can find them) and I paid particular attention to not copy any theme or idea.  This actually challenged me to come up with my own ideas throughout my stories.

You will notice that I reference superheroes (The Incredible Hulk on Mickey’s gift bag) and science fiction (Mickey refers to the space-time continuum) in my text.  Again, this is my way of honoring those things that I loved in my younger years and still enjoy today.