We're all a product of who comes before us.

So the question I pose to you is who made you the writer you are today? Who influenced you? In short, who do you love?

For me, when it came to books I read as a teen, it was often John Irving. I loved The World According to Garp, and that led me to read more of his writings. The Hotel New Hampshire. And especially A Prayer for Owen Meaney.

Earlier in my teens, it was Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath comes immediately to mind, but I loved so much of his story telling.

How about you? Who do you love? Who made you the writer you're becoming?