Happy Thanksgiving

After a long day of companiable cooking, recipes that turned out great, generally cheerful children, and lots of dishes, I’m pleasantly full and tired. But it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without giving thanks.  As a writer, I am grateful for:

My husband, who has always supported my writing habit, and who didn’t even blink when I told him I wanted to stay home and write stories instead of getting a job early on in our marriage. He’s my cheerleader and sounding board and now he’s learning all about the craziness of writing life while NaNo-ing. He’s got less than 5K to go. Hurray!

My writing buddy, Jo, with whom I’ve been trading crits for years now (or at least it seems like it!). I can always rely on her honesty, her insight, and her support. The camaraderie we share in this often insane endeavor is precious.

One of my newest blog readers, Megs, also an aspiring author, who has cheered me immensely with her comments.

Living in this time and place, with the luxury of all these labor-saving devices so that I can work at my craft  instead of beating my laundry out on the river rocks or gathering firewood. Having a computer with a backspace key. Access to a library. Not having my creativity crowded out by worries.

The Internet, with its abundance of information. Writing workshops, writing courses, industry blogs, author websites–pretty much all I’ve learned about writing outside of actually writing has been via the Internet. I met my writing buddies online, I learned how to give and take crits online, I found all that I know about publishing online.

And my kids, who make me laugh, teach me it’s okay to try new and out-of-the-box things and fail, keep me humble and provide me with blog fodder.

There is so much more to be thankful for, but if I included it all, this list would be far too long. I’ll end with one last thing: I’m grateful for my almost-nightly mug of hot chocolate, provided by a loving husband, which fuels most of my wordage. Mmmm!

Happy Thanksgiving, readers and friends! May you be richly blessed today and all days.