I know, it's November and I haven't said one word about Nanowrimo.... that's next week guys, this is Thanksgiving, so what better time to say thank you? (That's a rhetorical question).
For starters, I'd like to thank that random guy who spoke against cigarettes at my junior high. I think he took my anti-smoking poem and published it somewhere. If I'd paid more attention, I'd have gotten a copy and would know where I was first published. I was 12... I didn't pay that much attention. Pretty sure I didn't quite have my act together back then, possibly not now either.
I enjoyed that taste of success, but completely ignored it for a decade. I want to thank my creative writing teacher for not laughing at the play I wrote about crazy butterflies that was supposed to be utterly serious, but is not. She encouraged me to dig deeper and find more. Which I did. She could've laughed me off the face of the earth, but she took time to encourage me.
Next, my parents and brothers. When I made dad cry with a poem, I knew I'd reached far enough to connect to something deeper. When my big brothers got a strange look in their eyes, and didn't start lovingly making fun of me, their silence spoke more than any words could. When I gave mom a book hang over, I knew I'd done my best work to date. My aunts and uncles who have been genuine in their interest. Thanks, especially Lissa for reading some *ahem* early beta reading when I was very new to writing. To my grandma, I don't think blogs reach where you are, but you reach my stories from the memories I hold dear in my heart.
My friends, you put up with me randomly saying something and getting a look on my face that tells you I have to put it in a book. You let me talk endlessly about my characters' problems and bounce ideas off of you. You're the inspiration behind the tight friendships that you'll find in the pages of my books. Thank you.
My unicorn ninja coven: Michelle, Tracy, Maura, Jenn, and Aften... yeah, I don't remember why we're a unicorn ninja coven either, but it's still super funny to say and you ladies are phenomenal. I could not have scored and landed a better group of incredibly talented and incredibly kind ladies to gallop into the publishing journey with. *shameless plug that you should go buy THE NINE which just came out*
The UNC are my CPs for life as far as I'm concerned! To Caitlin and Natasha.... uh.... does thank you come anywhere close to a start for you two of my CPs? Probably not.... so thanks!
I'm going to be weird (I'm actually always weird, so this is normal) and lump some really important people into an nameless thank you because they encouraged me along their own journeys and have been totally integral in me staying on this crazy publishing/writing life. Huge thank you because I would've quit without seeing you succeed or going to conferences with you there and knowing I had a buddy when I got scared or when you checked in on me to tell me to keep going even as the sun was setting in the parking lot when we had kids to get back to and time was short. Those things made all the difference in the world to me.
To all the mentors and fellow mentees in all the twitter contests, especially Jamie, Brandy, and Laura!!! Thank you!!!! Seriously guys! ❤️ Laura, I won't forget to give you full credit for "meat cookies" in that one book whenever it sees the light of day.
To my agency brothers and sisters at Golden Wheat Literary... You guys are family and I can't think of anyone better to stumble on making books with.
Jason, and our daughters... geez you guys put up with a lot from me. And I love you so much for the way you love me and what I do with the stories inside of me. I promise to always hide the pieces of you that I can't help putting in my characters really well. Though I hope you can find them when you read what I've written. The family love that binds together my characters is the most obvious reflection of our family that can't help but find it's way into my stories. Thanks family!
As you can see, the whole writing thing might be a solitary seeming occupation, but the support system is huge and writing is never really something I will accomplish alone, I mean, characters come from life if they're to come alive in words. I can never write enough words to thank everyone who I am so thankful to have in my life and along this journey. ❤️
Jessica Schmeidler.... what, you thought since there's one paragraph left I'd lumped you in with the rest of Golden Wheat? No freakin' way! You don't get away that easily. Noppers. Geez, thank you will never be enough. It's not even close. But, thank you for the journey so far. I can't wait to see where it takes us next. ❤️