Something About Author Robert J. Wiersema

The So Misguided blog, a Canadian book blog, interviews Robert J. Wiersema who is - you guessed it - a Canadian author as part of a review of his second novel, Bedtime Story (2010):

What books did you read as a boy? Did you have particular authors or genres you pulled on in this novel? I saw mention of the background story of Bedtime Story in the Globe and Mail and of a long-lost author who you Googled, but other influences?

RJW: When I was a kid, I adored the Madeleine L’Engle books - Wrinkle in Time and Wind in the Door. A Swiftly Tilting Planet came later. I loved the John Bellairs horror novels, starting with The House with a Clock in Its Walls — I think a lot of who I am as a writer came out of those. I liked the series books, especially the Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators books. My first adult books were similar—Ian Fleming’s James Bond books at the high end, the trashy Executioner and Nick Carter series at the low. And of course Stephen King. Of course.

I was twelve when I stole and read The World According to Garp. It changed my life. To my mind, that’s the last book of my childhood, and the first book of my adulthood.