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What do you like most about your favorite author? I'd have to say I love how poetic Clive Barker. He can take such horror and make it some how so beautiful.

In his southern horror books, Michael McDowell can give even a Yankee a sense of a southern place and time. Since he was born and raised in the south, he has it down pat--the speech, the gossip, the clannish qualities of southern families.

Yet he can write a book like Katie and Gilded Needles that take place in New York, and he's so talented it seems like he's a native New Yorker. Bottom line is he could write about any place or time or situation and make you believe every word of it.

For general fiction I am a big fan of Anne Tyler. She has the most wonderful talent for conveying the seemingly mundane heartbreaking and joyous workings of a family. Her novels are always domestic in subject matter, but the way she eschews the general fiction formula by making her characters do the opposite of what you think they should do--just like in real life--keeps you on your toes.

My biggest thing is that they must be reliable for me. I have o lik almost everything they do. I like almost everything that Stephen King has written. Also, Richard Laymon, Bentley Little, Dean Koontz, Brian Keene, Brian Jacques, John Saul, Christopher Paolini, and so on. All of these authors rarely, if ever, disappoint me. That may change though if Keene and Koontz don't change the direction they have been heading.

I need to read another Anne Tyler, too. Loved the two I read.

I know you read The Accidental Tourist, Adam, what's the other one you read?

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. Any more recommendations, Tressa? I have honestly loved everything you have suggested by any author and I am currently loving Lonesome Dove.

I like twisted complicated plots that drag a bunch of things out that you may never thought of as "linked." Discovery is fun.

Yes, she has many other good books. Here are some others that I love:

(In order of publication)
Morgan's Passing
Breathing Lessons
Saint Maybe
The Amateur Marriage
Back When We Were Grownups
Digging to America

I liked Ladder of Years OK, but have never read A Patchwork Planet or some of her very early books: The Tin Can Tree; A Slipping Down Life; and Earthly Possessions. I can't remember if I've read Searching for Caleb. It does sound familiar but I've read a lot of books, lol.

The only one I didn't enjoy was her latest, Noah's Compass. I thought it was very claustrophobic because it deals with an elderly man holed up in his apartment. A friend made a wise observation about her books--she said something to the effect that as Tyler grows older, so do her characters and the situations she places them in are less family-oriented and more self-oriented. She was spot on with Noah's Compass. I am 46 and not 66 and still have a young son to deal with. Maybe I just couldn't connect to the man in this story. But it's very rare for her novels not to resonate with me.

Oh, Adam, glad you're loving Lonesome Dove, but I'm not in the least surprised. :-)

I'm going to take the slightly "old school" point of view...... Robert Bloch. I really love his wry, often subtle, gallows sense-of-humor that pervades many of his short stories and novels.
I was watching a great little documentary called "The Horror of It All" ( from the 90's) which featured Mr. Bloch and if you watched closely enough you could see that devilish little glimmer in Mr. Bloch's eyes. (It's kind of like having a great old uncle, who knows just about everything, telling you a great story before bed and then "zinging" you with a shocking conclusion.)

Trssa, I have all of the ones you mentioned. I will probably try Morgan's Passing next.
And yeah, Lonesome Dove is fantastic so far and much more complex (with all of the entertwined journeys of th characters) that I know it will be excellent. I love books tht have several stories going at once for the most part.

Morgan's Passing is a little odd compared to most general fiction, but I really got into the story and the character of Morgan.

There are some brutal scenes in Lonesome Dove, too. There's one character I hate with a passion. The scenes at Clara's ranch are my favorite. I love Clara!

So far, the only character I really hate is Jake. Some of the others are strange like Lippy, but all are very well-written. I know about Clara, but haven't gotten that far yet. I am 400 pages in or so now.

Jake Spoon. Ah, yes.

I like Stephen King's consistency as well. There are a few of his books I'm not crazy about but he doesn't produce stinkers. I also love his writing style and the way his characters interact with one another.

I like Thomas Ligotti's ability to use a plain prose style to evoke a nightmarish atmosphere as complex as that created by the more archaic styles of Lovecraft and Poe. I also love the black humour he weaves in when you least expect it.

Gatorman wrote: "I like Stephen King's consistency as well. There are a few of his books I'm not crazy about but he doesn't produce stinkers. I also love his writing style and the way his characters interact with..."

Yes, he is consistent. At least for me. Every one is good and readable, some yea, are better than others, but they all are good books to me, almost comfort reads of a sort. I love his way of writing characters, the way I can picture 'em real easy in my head, hear their accents, etc. I'm never disappointed and re-read them more than once, more than any other author really I've found so far. :)

I love Dean Koontz sense of humor!

What I love about Caitlin R. Kiernan's work most is how strange and weird her stories can get. She can also be quite the poet!

For Clive Barker and Neil Gaiman it is how they take many of the tired and old aspects from fantasy and horror, and then rework and change them into something new and deeply fascinating.

For Ray Bradbury, it is how he takes his Norman Rockwell settings and turns them on their heads using brilliant metaphors and poetic styles.

For Robert R. McCammon it is his highly detailed plots and well thought out characters. Not to mention his wonderful imagination.

What I love about my favorite author Jack Ketchum first and foremost is pure story telling. Simple prose but tight and effective. Also he can scare the hell out of me.

What I love about Clive Barker, and this is particularly true to his earlier novels like Weaveworld and Imajica, is his seemingly limitless imagination. He just fires me up with his storytelling which is so rich, visual and beautifully detailed. You also never no what you are going to get with Barker and there is a wonder or miracle around every corner.

However, I was disappointed with some of his later novels where he moves away from the horror-fantasy genres a bit.

I have to agree with Adam, Gatorman and Kit's assertion that Stephen King is wonderfully consistent. He is the only writer that doesn't (or very rarely) lets me down and yet his best novels do not compare, in my opinion, to Barker's best earlier work.

I love King, but since he's been mentioned I'm going to say what I love about Robert McCammon.
I am rereading Boy's Life, and what I love about it is McCammon's ability to make you feel like a child again. There is a sense of childlike wonder that he communicates so well...the sense of freedom you got when you were riding your bike as a child, the fear you felt when you were SURE there were monsters under your bed...things like that. In your head, YOU ARE THERE!
King, of course, is also very good at this (in It, for example) but in this particular book at least, I think McCammon has him beat.