Is he an influence? No. Not really. I first heard of H.P. Lovecraft after watching Re-Animator in the 7th grade. I looked into him because I liked his name. It’s the kind of name that makes you think he’s the type of guy who really knows what he’s talking about when it comes to all things creepy-crawly. Boy was I surprised. His stuff was really hard to find in the town I grew up in. Eventually, I was able to read him and understand him. I always loved his ideas and I believe his work took horror fiction, sci-fi, and pulp to another level — especially another level of quality for genre fiction. He created weird fiction. And for better or worse, he paved the way for the cult status of writers to follow him. He’s not a writer whose books I look up at on my shelf and get inspired to write. His stuff never scared me like Matheson or Blatty did. But I can’t really compare him to anyone except for maybe Poe and that’s a HUGE stretch. He did his thing, went his own way, had his own opinions, and still garnered a readership. I mean, we’re still talking about him over a century after he published his first story. Was he a racist? Yeah, it seems so. As a Hispanic, does that bother me? No. He’s an American writer just like I am, and I do believe that American writers should be given carte blanche to say and do whatever we want to when it comes to words. That’s really all, then.