Ellen Raskin, author of Newbery Award winning book The Westing Game, b. 1928.

“When she was asked to name those people and experiences that most affected her work, she listed “Blake, Conrad, Hawthorne, James, Nabokov, Piero della Francesca, Calude Lorrain, Gaugin, Matisse, Fantasia, Oriental art, baseball. hockey, zoos, medicine, and Spain,” in a Top of the News interview published in June, 1972.”

What would your answer to this rather open-ended question be? What are the people and experiences (and I would add , books) that most affect(ed) your work?
My list (in no particular order): The Bible, growing up Southern Baptist, libraries and librarians, Texas, my mother, my grandmother, C.S. Lewis, Lottie Moon, working as a summer missionary, Dr. Huff, Mary Pride, marrying Engineer Husband, homeschooling, Growing Without Schooling magazine, WORLD magazine, Agatha Christie, reading lots of books, Julia, goodness this list could go on for quite some time, couldn’t it? And my list isn’t nearly as impressive as Ms. Raskin’s, is it? Oh, well . . .