A Writer's Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving week has arrived and with it comes some thinking about the things we are grateful for. I'm going to join the crowd but I'll write about the things in my writing world that give me reason to give thanks. There will be one each day of this week. As you make your Thanksgiving holiday preparations, whether it be to host or to travel, consider the many blessings in your own writing world. If you are not a writer, then concentrate for a few moments on the things in your life as a reader that give you joy and for which you are thankful.

One of the blessings in my writing world has been the many, many outstanding people I've met through and because of my writing. To list them individually would be an impossibility as there have been hundreds over the twenty years since I joined the writing world. 

Some have been instructors in classes I've taken. Various things they said stayed with me over the years and made a foundation for everything I've written. One of the first was a woman in Connecticut who was my one-on-one instructor in a correspondence course. We never met in person but she had a big influence on me. We continued to correspond for some time after I finished the course. I learned a lot from her.

The moderators of the three critique groups I've been in have all had a huge influence on my writing abilities. I was able to grow as a writer because of my connection to each of them. Tom is the one who repeatedly said, "Send it in. No editor is going to climb in your bedroom window and look for your manuscript in the top dresser drawer. Send it in!" Kate hammered and hammered at me and the other members of the group but she taught us so much and did it with the intent of making us better writers. Joyce is the perfect Mother Hen who loves her chicks dearly but sometimes uses tough love to get her point across. All three of these people have brought a lot of light to my writing life.

I've met other writers in so many places. There have been countless Kansas Authors Club meetings, seminars I've attended, conferences and conventions that gave me an opportunity to meet and network with other writers. The wonderful writers in my critique groups all get gold stars as we've become good friends as well as compatriots in the writing world. I've met writers online at various sites including facebook. Many of them I'll never meet in person, but they are a part of my writing world and I've learned from all of them.

Editors come into this blessing, too. Oh sure, lots of them have said No to my submissions, but others have said Yes and we've established a relationship while working together in the submission and publication process. I've met few of them in person, but so many figure positively in my work.

Finally, I cannot name all the wonderful people in my writing world without mentioning the readers who take time to comment on a blog post or have written to me about something I've written. 

Yes, I'm truly thankful for all the people in my writing life and for the many fruitful friendships that have resulted.