Father's day is no joke!

Who are your influences?

I may have written about this before, frankly, I can’t remember. I get asked about my influences all the time.

Like many writers, I’m influenced by a host of other authors. Notably, as the phtos show, Elmore leonard and W.E.B. Griffin. But I’ve realized that I’m influenced in all aspects of my life and wonder if others have the same experience.

Do you sometimes say something and realize you adopted the comment from someone else? I’m not talking about a short story or plot, I mean in real life. The non-fiction book we live every day.

Like many men, I’ve found that my dad’s comments and even his mannerisms have taken hold in me. It may have taken a while but I find my attitude is extremely similar to my father’s even though our backgrounds are very different.

My father was raised during the depression in the 1920s and 1930s in Pittsburg. He was in the army in the Pacific during world war II, or as he called it, the big war. He came home and attended the University of Miami, then went through the UM law school and settled in West Palm Beach. He was also 39 by the time I came along. And big. He was not unusually tall at 5’11” but with wide shoulders and a weight that fluctuated between 235 and 240, he was “Big John” to a lot of people.

As you can see here he is in his army uniform and sitting with the lovely Jane Wickerham, who he married and I knew as my mother.

I was raised in the comfort of West Palm Beach, Florida. I didn’t even see snow until I was seventeen when it snowed in South Florida. I was not in the military and have never actually viewed the Japanese as a threat. I attended Florida State, and, at my father’s insistence, did not attend law school, opting instead for the wildly lucrative degree of a master degree in psychology with a minor in statistics.

Despite the differences, I find that everything my father held dear, I do too. Most the attitudes my father held toward others I find I hold them too. It didn’t happen over night. But, son-of-a-gun if he wasn’t right about everything.

He believed people did what they had to do. It was a way of saying people were good but occasionally did bad things. When I first started in police work I thought this notion was absurd. Now, in most cases, I can see where people make choices that are available to them. Sometimes choices were removed from them at a young age. Maybe a lack of education, an abusive family or mental condition. I’m not excusing criminal behavior but I’ve learned through experience that people often commit crimes for reasons other than the obvious.

My dad believed more work got done in the hallways of courthouses than in the courtroom. I’ve found that informal talks often lead to quicker solutions to serious problems more than organized negotiations. Administration is the anchor on civilization.

My father worked hard every day. He believed that hard work and a friendly attitude would make life more tolerable. For a guy who lived in a tent on Guam wondering if the Japanese would rule the Pacific with an iron fist, lived when no one in the country had a job and saw snow since his first year, he had one hell of a good attitude. I believe his attitude was infectious. People liked his company. I liked his company. Even as a teenager I liked to hang out with my dad.

My dad passed away more than 17 years ago but he influences me and, indirectly, my children, more than he'll ever know.

In publishing, it’s easy to get down on yourself or blame others. I guess those kind of thoughts are easy in any job. What’s hard is being happy and a good attitude is important. If you had to live on Pacific island, dodge bullets and disease, raise kids in a hectic, crazy time and still have a positive outlook you’d influence others too.

Who are your influences?