Do tell

I admire so many writers that if I tried to actually post about them, I'd never get any work done today. I mean honestly, I keep meeting so many amazing artists, keep reading book after book that just blows me away, particularly in, but not limited to YA. And as I'm a tv watcher, I find my influences there, too. Movies, I think are another category entirely for me. I'm a film addict, but episodic television is closer to what I work with when I write novels, so I'll stick to that. So, in no particular order, and with the understanding that if I know you or you read this and you write and you're not on the list, it's not that you don't belong there, just that I'm giving this about two minutes!

• Sarah Dessen and Anne Tyler absolutely rock for their creation of quirky, makeshift families of characters that never, ever leave me. If I can ever dip a pinky toe in their shoes it will an honor.
• Holly Black made me love fairy lore even when I swore I'd never like it. Melissa Marr kept me there.
• Joss Whedon turned the hero story on its ear with Buffy and I will honestly never forget the day -about three episodes into the series in its first year - when I gave it a chance and realized that this was storytelling I could (pun intended) stick my teeth into and never let go. I suspect there are many of us who owe some inspirations to the Whedonverse.
• The Palladinos created Gilmore Girls. They taught me pacing and wit and dialogue and respected my brain and my addiction to pop culture
• The writers of Friday Night Lights let me know that you could tell a Texas football story in ways that were true and real and that all stories, really, are about family.(see Dessen and Tyler, above)

I'll post more later this week, when I'm not so crazy busy. But now I'm throwing it out to you. Which writers of which genres simply blew your heads off and taught you some of things you really needed to learn?