Who Do You Write Like?

I was recently asked by an author this question: "who do you write like?" May answer was simple: "I write like myself."

I am paraphrasing a billboard not far from where I live, when saying that I cannot write like someone else because that person's writing style is already taken.

When I compose a query for an author, to send to a publisher, I try to include a biographical statement. A part of that statement is the author's literary influences. In other words, who does the author see as influences as to both what they write and their writing style. But who your writing style is like and who influences it are two different things. The first is impossible, the second is the fun of meeting writers.

Who are my literary influences? Well, let's list them:

James Ramsey Ullman
Frank Slaughter
Bl. Pope John Paul the Great
Thucydides
Robert Remini
Alexandre Dumas
Anne Bronte
Ralph McInerny
Margaret Truman
Robert Frost
Russell Kirk
Orestes Brownson
Parke Godwin
Taylor Caldwell
Louis L'Amour
W. P. Kinsella

I know that is a big list, but I am a complicated guy!