History OneOfUs / WritingWonks

** Between [[https://twitter.com/anamariecox/status/231473107427291136 this conversation on her twitter account]] where she uses the phrase Mary Sue, and having retweeted [[https://twitter.com/ryanpbroderick/status/429279866933235712 this]], she clearly knows about Wiki/TVTropes.

** And the real kicker: claimed in one interview that he learned how to write by reading Wiki/TVTropes.

** He's heard of Wiki/TVTropes.

* Creator/TerryPratchett, author of the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novels is known to be [[http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=143656 a fan of games]] such as ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' and fan-missions of ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'' and has had a part in developing the early game versions of his books. Also his daughter Creator/RhiannaPratchett is a writer for video games such as the ''VideoGame/{{Overlord}}'' series, ''VideoGame/HeavenlySword'' and ''VideoGame/MirrorsEdge.'' Check out his review of the ''[[Film/LaraCroftTombRaider Tomb Raider]]'' film on [[Quotes/VideoGameMoviesSuck the VideoGameMoviesSuck quotes page]]. The really big clue might have been the fact that he is the author of fantasy novels that parody other fantasy novels as well as other, nerdier, things.
** [[FanNickname Pterry]] is a very serious fan of classic genre SF, and was a fixture in British SF fandom for years before he became a famous writer.

** There is also a suspicion, noted by fans versed in both ''oeuvres'', that Terry has more than a passing knowledge of the works of that great Gothic/heavy rock band, the Music/BlueOysterCult. The "[[DogLatin Latatian]]" family motto for the extended Mort family is in itself a dead giveaway: ''Non timetis messor'', or ''Don’t fear the reaper'' (later adapted as a motto in Terry Pratchett's own coat of arms, in proper Latin as ''Noli timere messorem''). The song itself is used as a running gag throughout Hogfather, and evidence has been garnered from the books that points to homage references to other BÖC songs. Interestingly enough, the band themselves may be aware of Pratchett and may have reciprocated the homage, or paid homage of their own. Take a look at the back cover of ''Cult Classics'' and then go read ''Literature/ReaperMan''. See here: [[http://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/index.php/Blue_Oyster_Cult]].

** By the way, he also has a hobby of growing carnivorous plants.
** And he says he used to play ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' and ''TabletopGame/BloodBowl''. The former is pretty evident in the earlier books.

*** Well, there are a few stories, all originating from Pratchett himself, about the origin of The Luggage. Another version is that he was inspired by rolling suitcases at an airport that you tugged with a leash. Pterry said even ''he'' doesn't really remember which version is true.
** Pterry was also very much a fan of ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'', and wrote a fair bit of dialogue for a mod or two.

* Creator/SeananMcGuire is a proud fan of ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'', Creator/StephenKing, and ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'', among others, and frequently includes references to fandoms in her work -- check out the [[ShoutOut/InCryptid Shout Out page]] for ''Literature/InCryptid''. In some cases she's been a PromotedFangirl, writing official material for ''Alien'' and Creator/MarvelComics. She's also a {{filk}} musician and songwriter.

* Creator/AynRand was a fan of ''Series/DoctorWho, ''Series/CharliesAngels'', Series/TheTwilightZone'' and ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'', saying that her favourite character was Spock. She also enjoyed the ''Film/JamesBond'' films, particularly ''Film/DrNo''.

* Naomi Novik, author of the ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'' series, openly admits that she wrote FanFic for about ten years before becoming a published historical fantasy author. ''Temeraire'' itself even [[AscendedFanfic began life]] as an ''Literature/AubreyMaturin'' fanfic.

** She's also a founding member and [[http://transformativeworks.org/about/people current chair]] of the Organisation for Transformative Works, a fan-run organization dedicated to ensuring that "all fannish works are recognized as legal and transformative and are accepted as a legitimate creative activity" and defending said works from legal challenges. One of its major projects is an open-source fanfic archive, Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn.

* Andrzej Sapkowski, creator of the ''[[Literature/TheWitcher Witcher]]'' books, is a huge fan of KingArthur and everything related to it. Once he and another writer took over a panel at a convention and turned it into a duel who can prove to have greater knowledge about ''Literature/SienkiewiczTrilogy''. He also has a recommendation list of fantasy novels he thinks every true fan of the genre should give a try. Said list consisted of one hundred positions at this point and all series, even the long-running ones like ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', are listed as just one position. And that's just books he liked.

* Renowned Japanese author Creator/YukioMishima stated in an interview in 1967 that his favorite television show was ''Series/{{Ultraman}}''.

* Author and scriptwriter Melinda M. Snodgrass has said that her career has been "one long nerdgasm." She's a {{Promoted Fan|girl}} in many different categories: a ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fan who ended up a scriptwriter for ''Next Generation''; a ''Franchise/MassEffect'' fan who got picked to write some of the novels; a roleplaying gamer who, along with her good friend Creator/GeorgeRRMartin, turned their ''Superworld'' game into the ''Literature/{{Wild Cards}}'' series (and now is a writer/producer on the upcoming ''Wild Cards'' movie).

** Martin started out as a BigNameFan in silver age comic book fandom. His first published stories were for ComicBook fanzines, and he's even had letters printed in early [[Creator/MarvelComics Marvel]] comics.

** There is also a suspicion, noted by fans versed in both ''oeuvres'', that Terry has more than a passing knowledge of the works of that great Gothic/heavy rock band, the Music/BlueOysterCult. The "[[DogLatin Latatian]]" family motto for the extended Mort family is in itself a dead giveaway: ''Non timetis messor'', or ''Don’t fear the reaper'' (later adapted as a motto in Terry Pratchett's own coat of arms, in proper Latin as ''Noli timere messorem''). The song itself is used as a running gag throughout Hogfather, and evidence has been garnered from the books that points to homage references to other BÖC songs. Interestingly enough, the band themselves may be aware of Pratchett and may have reciprocated the homage, or paid homage of their own. Take a look at the back cover of ''Cult Classics'' and then go read ''Discworld/ReaperMan''. See here: [[http://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/index.php/Blue_Oyster_Cult]].

** Martin also based the ''Literature/WildCards'' series on the ''Superworld'' tabletop RPG campaign[[note]]Published by Creator/{{Chaosium}}, of ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' fame[[/note]] that he and fellow local writers were involved in at the time.

** Martin also based the ''Literature/WildCards'' series on the ''Superworld'' tabletop RPG campaign that he and fellow local writers were involved in at the time.

* Creator/SalmanRushdie loves Music/FrankZappa and was even present in the audience during Zappa's legendary Royal Albert Hall concert in 1968.

* Renowned Japanese author Creator/YukioMishima stated in an interview in 1967 that his favorite television show was ''Series/{{Ultraman}}''.
* Creator/SalmanRushdie apparently spent a lot of the time in hiding after the release of ''Literature/TheSatanicVerses'' playing video games, and likes VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3 in particular. He has also written a book for children about video games and expressed a deep passion for superhero comics.

** [[http://cdn8.openculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/martin-LETTER.jpg Here's]] one from 1963.

** Martin started out as a BigNameFan in silver age comic book fandom. His first published stories were for ComicBook fanzines.

* Creator/CormacMcCarthy is a hardcore science geek, to the extent that he'd rather be around scientists than writers. Because of this, he works out of the prestigious Santa Fe Institute (of which he is a trustee), reportedly knowing more about math and physics than many of its faculty. He's offered to edit science books that he enjoyed, much to the delight of their authors, making him an AscendedFan of sorts.

* Author and scriptwriter Melinda M. Snodgrass has said that her career has been "one long nerdgasm." She's an AscendedFan in many different categories: a ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fan who ended up a scriptwriter for ''Next Generation''; a ''Franchise/MassEffect'' fan who got picked to write some of the novels; a roleplaying gamer who, along with her good friend Creator/GeorgeRRMartin, turned their ''Superworld'' game into the ''Literature/{{Wild Cards}}'' series (and now is a writer/producer on the upcoming ''Wild Cards'' movie).

** Or perhaps the universe decided to make him a true AscendedFanboy.

* All right, we expect science fiction, fantasy, and horror authors to be geeks, but how about purveyors of "Proper Literature"? During an interview with Paul Gambaccini (see below), Creator/UmbertoEco expressed a wish to write ''Franchise/GreenLantern''. Thus far, DC hasn't taken him up on it.

* Naomi Novik, author of the ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'' series, openly admits that she wrote FanFic for about ten years before becoming a published historical fantasy author.

** She's also a founding member and [[http://transformativeworks.org/about/people current chair]] of the Organisation for Transformative Works, a fan-run organization dedicated to ensuring that "all fannish works are recognized as legal and transformative and are accepted as a legitimate creative activity" and defending said works from legal challenges. One of its major projects is an open-source fanfic archive.

** There is also a suspicion, noted by fans versed in both ''ouevres'', that Terry has more than a passing knowledge of the works of that great Gothic/heavy rock band, the Music/BlueOysterCult. The "[[DogLatin Latatian]]" family motto for the extended Mort family is in itself a dead giveaway: ''Non timetis messor'', or ''Don’t fear the reaper'' (later adapted as a motto in Terry Pratchett's own coat of arms, in proper Latin as ''Noli timere messorem''). The song itself is used as a running gag throughout Hogfather, and evidence has been garnered from the books that points to homage references to other BÖC songs. Interestingly enough, the band themselves may be aware of Pratchett and may have reciprocated the homage, or paid homage of their own. Take a look at the back cover of ''Cult Classics'' and then go read ''Discworld/ReaperMan''. See here: [[http://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/index.php/Blue_Oyster_Cult]].

* All right, we expect science fiction, fantasy, and horror authors to be geeks, but how about purveyors of "Proper Literature"? During an interview with Paul Gambaccini (see below), Creator/UmbertoEco expressed a wish to write ''Franchise/GreenLantern''. Thus far, DC haven't taken him up on it.

** She's also a founding member and [[http://transformativeworks.org/about/people current chair]] of the Organisation for Transformative Works, a fan-run organisation dedicated to ensuring that "all fannish works are recognized as legal and transformative and are accepted as a legitimate creative activity" and defending said works from legal challenges. One of its major projects is an open-source fanfic archive.

** She was a regular attendee of the various annual [=BotCon=] ''Transformers'' fan conventions in TheNineties,[[note]]before the live-action movies, when the brand was dormant[[/note]] and wrote various ''Transformers'' fanfics.

* Creator/JRRTolkien and Creator/CSLewis were both huge fans of epic fantasy and mythology and grew frustrated that no one seemed to be writing it anymore. Finally they both decided "If no one else is going to write the books we want to read, we'll just [[LetsSeeYouDoBetter write them ourselves]]."

* Sportswriter Creator/BillSimmons is a massive nerd, and spent so much of his column crossing over sports and pop culture that ESPN spun off Grantland.com so that he and others could continue. He's written lengthy articles on ''VideoGame/MaddenNFL'' (coining the page quote for RubberBandAI), ''Series/TheWire'', ''Series/JerseyShore'', ''Series/{{Survivor}}'', ''Franchise/{{Rocky}}'', and ''Film/TeenWolf''. The latter being notable because he actually ''calculated the stat lines for the basketball scenes.''

* Andrzej Sapkowski, creator of the ''[[Literature/TheWitcher Witcher]]'' books, is a huge fan of KingArthur and everything related to it. Once he and another writer took over a panel at convention and turned it into a duel who can prove to have greater knowledge about ''Literature/SienkiewiczTrilogy''. He also has a recommendation list of fantasy novels he thinks every true fan of the genre should give a try. Said list consiste a one hundred positions at this point and all series, even the long running ones like ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', are listed as just one position. And that's just books he liked.

** And the real kicker: claimed in one interview that he learnt how to write by reading Wiki/TVTropes.
* Creator/LarryNiven, multiple Hugo Award, Nebula Award, and Creator/HPLovecraft Award winning science fiction author, space-program booster, and generally all-around nice guy, has publicly stated that of all the projects he's been involved in, writing the "bible" for the post-''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'' comic book series is probably his favorite, because it let him play with a lot of the "toys" he enjoyed "playing with" when he was younger.

* Australian writer Creator/MatthewReilly definitely counts. Among other things, he owns a Delorean as his day to day car, named a group in one of his books after a background character with no lines in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', owns a life size Boba Fett helmet which sits on his writing desk, and on the wall of his study is life size Han Solo frozen in carbonite.

* Creator/DianeDuane got her start writing ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fic in the 70s, and has referenced writing ''Series/DoctorWho'' and ''[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' fic before that. She's very active on tumblr these days, reading and reblogging a lot of her favorite ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' fic and art. She's also... started writing fanfiction of her own books and posting them. It's weird for everyone.

* Author and scriptwriter Melinda M. Snodgrass has said that her career has been "one long nergasm." She's an AscendedFan in many different categories: a ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fan who ended up a scriptwriter for ''Next Generation''; a ''Franchise/MassEffect'' fan who got picked to write some of the novels; a roleplaying gamer who, along with her good friend Creator/GeorgeRRMartin, turned their ''Superworld'' game into the ''Literature/{{Wild Cards}}'' series (and now is a writer/producer on the upcoming ''Wild Cards'' movie).

* Creator/GabrielGarciaMarquez once said in an interview: ''To me the music of Music/TheRollingStones, the 1959 Cuban revolution and my friends are the things that interest me the most in the world.''

* ''Why The West Rules -- For Now'' by Ian Morris is a sober work of popular history, investigating why different regions of the world have developed at different rates, and speculating on how things might change in the future. It also refers to Creator/RobertAHeinlein, ''Series/StargateSG1'', "Literature/Nightfall1941", and TheSingularity.

* Creator/DianeDuane got her start writing ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fic in the 70s, and has referenced writing ''Series/DoctorWho'' and ''[[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Lord of the Rings]]'' fic before that. She's very active on tumblr these days, reading and reblogging a lot of her favorite ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' fic and art. She's also... started writing fanfiction of her own books and posting them. It's weird for everyone.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov had read ''Literature/LordOfTheRings'' five times in his life. Interestingly enough Creator/JRRTolkien himself said in 1967 that he seldom found any modern books that could hold his attention, with the exception of Asimov.

* ''Why The West Rules -- For Now'' by Ian Morris is a sober work of popular history, investigating why different regions of the world have developed at different rates, and speculating on how things might change in the future. It also refers to Creator/RobertAHeinlein, ''Series/StargateSG1'', ''Literature/{{Nightfall}}'', and TheSingularity.

* Creator/DianeDuane got her start writing ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fic in the 70s, and has referenced writing ''Series/DoctorWho'' and ''[[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Lord of the Rings]]'' fic before that. She's very active on tumblr these days, reading and reblogging a lot of her favorite Sherlock fic and art. She's also... started writing fanfiction of her own books and posting them. It's weird for everyone.

** Pterry was also very much a fan of ''VideoGame/TheElderScrolls'', and wrote a fair bit of dialogue for a mod or two.