For my fifth birthday, my parents presented me with a Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary. Perhaps a strange gift at that age yet I was thrilled as I could already read. Although it would be many years before I argued Aristotelian against Existential predicate logic and the Objectivism of Ayn Rand, at my then young age I instantly realized that if there was something written that I did not understand, I could look it up and learn. The door was open and I am happy to say that I did go through it.
Since then I have been learning and reading, and writing, of course. Nowadays that writing extends to fiction as it is just so much fun to explore once imaginary characters as they come to life on a page.
My early influences were Margaret Mitchell, Robert Ruark, Ayn Rand, Graham Greene, Thomas Dooley, M. Tullius Cicero, Gilbert Highet, and it was Kenneth Grahame's 'Ratty', who helped define my love of "...simply messing about in boats."
These days I like William Faulkner, Robert Service, Robert Ludlum, John Grisham, Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler. I readily confess that my favorite crime fighter is still Stephanie Plum, but I don't read politics. My current wife, (bless her heart), hates it when I come home bleeding.
All right...so lately I've been reading politics too. Sue me.
Raymond Terry is my pen name.