As far as authors go I would have to put Steven King up front. There wasn't a time when I was younger that I was without one of his books in my hip pocket or latter on my purse. Lately though it's been David Eddings, JRR Tolkien, and believe it or not Mercedies Lackey (and I'm sure I spelled her name wrong - but my kids have all of my books of hers at the moment). Lackey really did inspire my yaoi writting though. She was the first writer I had read that actually had a homosexual main character WITH romance. I'm sure someone else had done it along the way, but she was the first one I had come across.