Darren Mitton asked G. Russell Overton:

What is a book that changed your outlook/perception & that you feel influenced your writing?

G. Russell Overton In a sense every book I’ve read to completion has impacted my outlook on life and/or my writing. If I didn’t finish a book, it lost my interest, and its impact was minimal. Certain books have had a profound impact on those areas of my life. Without question, the books I have listed on my Goodreads page have had the greatest impact. The book I will reference in order to answer your question is Timothy Egan’s, "The Worst Hard Time." This is a book that when I first started reading, I could not stop. I finished it in the course of a weekend. By the time I finished it, I had been emotionally moved. The writing style certainly was engaging, but the story, a non-fictional account of the Dust Bowl years, permanently left a mark on my perceptions of how humans interact with the environment and how the environment can exact brutal revenge when abused. Though I am always careful not to attempt to adopt another author's writing style, a book that is so well written, must have some kind of impact on my own ability to communicate. I highly recommend it.

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