Ray Bradbury: August 22, 1920 - June 5, 2012

It's taken me a while to write about this.

Books are such an incredible influence on my life. Pinning down my favorites is always difficult and they often jump genres, subjects and authors without warning. I can love one piece by a particular author and hate another. Edgar Allan Poe and Shakespeare are good/recognizable examples. Frank Miller is a more modern example. There are very few authors who, regardless of genre or plot, produce not just entertainment but meaningful inspirations.

Ray Bradbury has always been an incredible inspiration to me.

Ray's books were the first to scare me to my very core. He never disgusted me, which is how so many authors write 'scary'. He didn't need gore. He didn't need axe wielding psychos. He had aliens that wore the faces of dead loved ones. He had a society that feared creativity so much they set fire to it. He had a blind witch that could find anyone, anywhere, with just her fingers. He had lions that stepped from televisions, Happiness Machines, and a giant's footsteps. His words were horrifying, beautiful, and inspiring.

I heard about his death June 6th. All I could do was stare at my laptop. It felt like a hole had suddenly opened in my chest. I'd never considered he would die. It sounds strange, but it's true. He's a creator, a genius. He's a legend. He was alive. I had the chance to meet him, to sit down and see just how much of an arrogant bastard he really was. It was a minute chance, a one in a million chance, but it still existed. He's gone. He'll never sit at his typewriter again. There won't be another world that comes from his incredible mind. It's like knowing the last bit of magic fell from the sky, and no amount of clapping will bring it back.

I never met him. We had nothing in common, save a deep love of books and writing. He was strange, paranoid, and sixty-five years my senior. But I feel like I lost my closest teacher, my weirdest muse, the origin of my own creation. I never met him. I'll miss him every day.