Since I didn't know he was sick, my first reaction to his death was of total disbelief. The last time I saw him was on Charlie Rose, about a year ago, and even when he looked suddenly older, didn't take his sober and thoughtful stance as anything else than age. Sadly, it wasn't that way.

To me, Mr. Crichton's death is very painful because I always dreamt of meeting the man who inspired me to write my own stories, after taking his style as a school. He made it look so easy, but not until I tried it by myself I realized the man was a master at keeping it simple, quick, and entertaining.

My first Crichton book was Jurassic Park, and three months later I had read everything he had published until that time. After JP, my next favorite is The Great Train Robbery and then The Andromeda Strain. His worst, in my opinion, State of Fear.In fact, it was after I read State of Fear that I decided to finally dedicate my life to writing. I read it on a flight from New York to Honolulu in January 2005 and was seriously disappointed by the poor effort. Interesting book, I have to say, but rushed. Probably he was sick already, who knows. The thing is, that when I finished my girlfriend asked me if I liked it, and I answered that I had better unpublished manuscripts at home. She told me to look for an agent.

I did, and right now my first book is almost out after a few years of painful editions and rewritings. Personally, I don't think it is better than anything by my late mentor (including State of Fear), and if something makes me really miserable is that he'll never know I dedicated the book to him.

By the way, I'm 38 years old now, which is 10 years off the date I set after I read Jurassic Park to publish my first book. I had read somewhere that Mr. Crichton had published his first book at 28 (which is wrong) and I wanted to do it before or just by that time. I didn't, but better late than never.