A lot of my work will just be my own take on things that I like &/or I'm interested in; usually the way I think they should be. For instance, in many of my fantasy settings, the rules for magic, the supernatural & the afterlife will be the same, because they just feel right, but applied differently.
J.R.R.Tolkein, H.P.Lovecraft, George R.R.Martin, H.G.Wells, Robert Heinlein, Andrzej Sapkowski, J.K.Rowling, George Orwell, Frank Herbert & Stephen King, to name a few. For me, a "favourite" author is hard to define.