I don't know that I am. As to how my family affected my writing that's what I'm writing to find out. The Marines have a few good men, I have a few good readers. I seem to need a lot of reassurance that this or that idea is not too crazy or unwieldy then, after a while, and after a certain point, maybe ten or twenty or thirty pages in, the story or novel becomes real to me. It is as if the narrative acquires potential weight and solidity.
Reviews are another matter.
I say I don't read them, and for the most part I don't, and yet I do read a few, here and there. The really bad ones I stay away from. Unread bad reviews are little more than mild spanks in the hazing ritual around the publication of the brand new book. The more you read reviews, the more important they become. When I'm working on something, my whole life seems better.