I've been asked this question numerous times before, so answering it has become second nature to me. I don't even have to think about what author and whose work most influenced my writing because the answer is automatic.
Before I was ever published, before I learned the ins and outs of the industry, I was a reader. I loved Alice in Wonderland, as I mentioned in an earlier blog post. As I got older, Langston Hughes easily became my favorite poet. Quite a few readers have commented that my writing seems poetic, and I can honestly say Langston Hughes had quite a bit to do with that. James Baldwin became my favorite author soon thereafter. Baldwin's work was (and still is) amazing in my eyes, but Baldwin as a person was even more phenomenal. A brave soul who chose to live his truth in a time when it was incredibly frowned upon. A brilliant mind that that produced work that most writers today couldn't rival. His work is timeless and is still relevant today.
I started reading Zane and Sister Souljah pretty early. If I'm not mistaken, I first started picking these books up in middle school. Zane's work has been incredibly influential on my writing from the very beginning. Her vivid descriptions of sex scenes and her characters' movements and emotions helped to shape my writing early-on. Sister Souljah's street-based stories helped me to find my tribe, which led to me finding my genre.
The author who has had the single most influence in my work is Wahida Clark.
I started reading Wahida Clark's Thugs series years ago with my mother- and sister-in-law, and from the very first book I picked up that had her name on the cover, I have been a fan. I also developed a love for series because of that series. The characters are three-dimensional and well-developed. The plot thickens with every installment. The villains are characters you love to hate. And the drama... ohhh, the drama! Whewww! Not to mention that the male characters are giving BDE and definitely have book bae status. In fact, I loved her character Kaylin Santos so much that when I found out I was pregnant with a boy, I tried to convince my husband to let me name him Kaylin. She paints her characters out like real people who live real lives and make real mistakes. Most (not all, but most) of the events that occur in her books are extremely realistic, and as a reader, you're able to imagine these things actually happening.
The Thugs series has been running for several years now, and Wahida has other series under her belt as well. There's also the Payback series, which I highly recommend as well. The Golden Hustla series happens to be a favorite of mine as well, but she's received mixed reviews on it. I think this is because the characters in the books are more-so scammers than thugs like the Thugs series. She also has several books she's written and published under the names of her characters from the Thugs series, and believe me, they are all fye!!! I've read every single one of them. In fact, the only Wahida books I don't have are her collabs with other authors. She's definitely been the most influential author for me, and her work has helped me to set the standard for my own.
