@punishmenthurts

I think my internal voice is a triple Venn diagram of "Beat generation +etc authors," A. A. Milne, and… oh gosh… those paperback books of elephant jokes that were popular in the 60s.

NOTE TO SELF: Come back later and find a better third option for this lol.

TBH it's probably Beat guys, Milne, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. But I was trying to think of something funnier but also true… Oh! Or Lewis Carroll. Yea, that's a big contributor to the general vibe of nonsense. I aspire to piffle like Lord Peter Wimsey.

But I feel like there's a particular children's book or series I'm forgetting… The Hardy Boys, but they've been "modernized" to death and even the originals - bless Leslie MacFarlane EDIT: McFarlane. My bad. - he had STYLE… "for his time"… but was STILL just writing for a buck, even if he said he really put effort and heart and fun into it, for his own satisfaction of a job well done. So there's really no "voice" contribution there. I'm too old for Lemony Snicket to be really FORMATIVE, obviously I adore his voice, but it feels self-conscious to "imitate" it now…

OH I KNOW. Dashiell Hammett. The real dry hard boiled Continenal Op "well, life sucks, as usual" self-narration lmao.

So I'd say actually a quadruple Venn diagram…
1) A. A. Milne
2) Lewis Carroll
3) Dashiell Hammett
4) Beat Era(ish) authors

• with a bonus absolutely lachrymose and disapproving Victorian-hysterical Victorian ghost woman just wafting all over everything
• and hopefully Dorothy L. Sayers as an encouraging guardian angel "voice of my conscience" so to speak

This is fun thinking about. I like breaking myself down into categories lol. Give me more to do! Give me more!