Who is your favorite author, and why do you enjoy their work?

I have a lot of "favorites." Over the last few years I have really appreciated JK Rowling for her ability to develop characters and really engage her readers.

 Long term, one of my favorite authors is sci fi David Brin, although he hasn't written anything new for awhile. He also can really develop characters you really learn to care about, develops these great settings and plots, and makes "science" a little easier for my brain to "get." His book EARTH is awesome.

 Anyone else have some recommendations?

I love to read mystery novels  ;  at this moment my favorite authors are Robert Parker and Walter Mosley. I enjoy Parker because his repartee and easy bantering with his girlfriend always surprises me: His vocabulary is a learning experience .  His novel Shrink Rap was so realistic , it left me feeling as though I were in therapy. I would be a fool not to enjoy his work.

 

Mr. Mosley writes about the racial issues of the fifties wrapped around a mystery ,I enjoy him mostly for his insight into the fifties and racial discrimination , his vivid descriptions of the good old days. I do not think that his solution to the mysteries are the main attraction of his Novels.

I would recommend  them to anyone . 

My favorite author... I must say, I have many. For one, there's Edgar Allan Poe. Though his writing may be too gruesome for some, I enjoy his witty remarks disguised by serious wording. Don't ask me to explain. I see his writing as intelligent thoughts recorded on paper, waiting to be discovered and understood by others. Then there's James Patterson. His writing style is very different from Poe's; his words are lighter and amusing. He has a way with words - just a few sentences can transform the whole mood of the story, send your heart beating fifty times a second. There's Anthony Horowitz, with his deep settings and professional, unstoppable characters; and Thomas L. Friedman. Friedman releases wide-ranging thoughts, he presents new ideas, a different perspective. His book The World is Flat is remarkable. Overall, every author is unique, and their writing styles are all different. Together, though, they can contribute to making a better writer of us all. Writers learn from writers.    

I have to say Stephen King's my favorite author. I've always felt engaged in what I was reading, and he has yet to disappoint me. I admit, there are a few things I find problems with (like his use of the c-word, since that's one swear word that's best left alone), but overall, his books are the few that I don't mind reading again and again. I think I've read Misery five times and yet I can still sink into it's world. Someday I'll get through all his novels and stories, but for the mean time it's required reading brought on by English classes.

I must say that my 2 favorite authors are Sloane Crosley and David Sedaris. Both of them make me laugh so hard I cry. That's important in a book. There is no tone to hear, or expression, so it has to be really funny. Love that!

.....As others have said, I have many 'favorite' authors, depending on what mood I'm in.

When I'm in a Science Fiction Mood, I like Robert Anson Heinlein, Andre Norton, Spider Robinson, Larry Niven, Leo Frankowski, & George Lucas (he counts!);

When I'm in a Fantasy Mood, I like Lawrence Wyatt-Evans, Sean McMullen, (and a bunch of others I can't seem to remember right now);

When I'm in a realistic mood, I love Robert Tannenbaum. I did like Sandra Brown for a while, but her pattern of characters and romance-soft porn got old fast.

.....It would be fun to see someone take Tannenbaum's evolving family-of-characters out of their 'New York Legal System'-environment and successfully translate them into a Fantasy or Science Fiction environment, without being too obvious.

..........Which of your most favorite authors works would you like to see translated into a different genre?