Interesting thread. I would recommend some of my favourite authors in terms of style (and content!) but I suspect that it's too particular to my tastes.
For voice and humour in culture I'd say
Michael McDowell is wonderful (omni) but really when he's delivering prose/dialogue about the Deep South. But that's very specific isn't it.
I like the cleanliness of
John Langan (a slightly less chatty Stephen King, with more profound content) and then in my top corner is the recluse
Thomas Ligotti.
However, my appreciation for their styles incorporates their subject matter/content, too. I think it's hard -- or maybe unhelpful to one's learning if you divorce the style from the content. Not in all cases, but certainly the style of the above authors.
As he's probably far too humble to toot his own 'ooter, I'd like to put forward
@HareBrain (Bryan Wigmore) as a phenomally clean/transparent writer who gets himself out of the way of the story. When I read the Goddess Project I was both struck by it and envious of it. Maybe as the proofer for the 75 and 300s he's developed some skill here
In the way I'm always banging on about the community on the
Podcast, I think it might help if we mentioned successful published writers here who have a specific style; that way you can pester them about their process for freeeeeee.
Going back to the earlier discussion of SK's
On Writing. I think it's a great starting point for the nuts and bolts, but one of the key pieces of wisdom in that book is not the section on the craft of writing, but the fact that you need a life: experiences; cultural exposure. Much as it'd be a delight to live alone in a tower with Scrivener and a printer, and your muse, I don't think we -- any of us -- can write until we've experienced
things. Use them, they'll inform your writing as much as your craft.
