Okay, I like George Saunders, you like George Saunders, everyone likes George Saunders

On one of my panels at Capclave, I asked my fellow panelists whether they ever feared being influenced too much by the authors that they love. And they all answered something like, "No, you eventually develop your own voice."

I think that it's much less common for SF writers to have this anxiety of influence. It's a pretty incestuous tradition we have, a…