Inspiration is subjective, mine is family. After raising our daughter, I went to work at Pomona College in California. When given the opportunity to watch our granddaughter, I left Pomona after eleven years. I came away from the College with memories of trips abroad, wonderful friends and a heightened appreciation of academia. We should never stop listening, learning or expressing and each of those can be nurtured when reading to a child. My role as grandmother renewed my love of children's books and presented me with two beautiful reasons to write Grandma's Imaginary Shtick Beat the Doldrums and Skipper.Open a book . . . there's an opportunity in each to love a character you've yet to meet.