Honestly, I'm not sure if I really have any "major" influences.  I'm not really sure what really got me into the writing scene.  Even though I would write a story every once in a while when I was a kid, I never really once said or thought about becoming a writer. 

Back in second grade, the teacher had the whole class do creative writing assignments and I just LOVED doing those.  We also did some writing in third and fourth grade.  In fourth grade, the teacher had us write a story every week and read it out loud to the class.