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In the midst of a hectic day preparing for Thanksgiving with friends and family, I want to pause and express my love and gratitude to:

1) READERS: I almost wrote “my readers”, and while I do love y’all especially, in reality I’m just grateful for all readers, every last person out there who enjoys picking up a book and immersing themselves in a tale spun by one of us wacky writers. Thank you for going on the journeys with our characters, for falling in love alongside them, for crying with them, for helping them live outside of the writer’s mind. Thank you, also, for trusting us with your hard-earned money, for trusting that the trip will be worth it, so that we can afford to write more stories for you. Thank you, readers! You make our hearts sing and make our work worthwhile.

2) Beta-readers: These special first readers get extra buckets of gratitude for making sure we don’t embarrass ourselves too badly, for telling us the ugly truths about our babies (books) and forcing us to reevaluate them with new eyes. Thank you for taking precious time away from your family, friends, work, job, and life to read our books (sometimes more than once) with a critical eye and then writing out (sometimes long) emails about how they can be better. Thank you for fighting for our books. You’re our heroes.

3) Editors: Thank you for trying to fix every last wrong thing in our books and for making our books your own babies, too. Thank you for forcing us into the harder edits that we might otherwise resist. We’d be a mess without you!

4) Reviewers: Thank you for loving books so much you tell the world about them! Thank you for doing your best to spread the word about the books you love and for being honest about the books you don’t. Thank you for spending time away from your family, friends, and life to run blogs, promote our books, post on Goodreads/FB/Twitter with so much enthusiasm. Where would we be with you guys? You do so much for all of us authors! Thank you forever!

5) Family and Friends: Thank you for listening to us talk endlessly about made up people. Thank you for giving us the time to write the books, for not making us feel guilty about how often we spend our free hours in a fantasy land, and thank you for understanding piled up dishes, and laundry, and missed appointments. Thank you for holding our hands when books bomb, and for jumping up and down with us when books do well, and for reading books that you might otherwise not just because we wrote them. Thank you for your love, your support, your cheerleading, and your tether to reality.

Thank you! You make our world go ’round!

Because I Need To Say It — THANK YOU. YES, YOU! #family #readers #realitycheck

When a book comes out, there are always people to thank, most especially the readers. Right now, though, I want to write a post thanking my family. Though it’s unlikely they’ll even see this post, I want them to know that their acceptance, support, and enthusiastic cheerleading of my endeavors has meant the world to me.

I want to thank my mother for being amazingly supportive, for reading and for just being awesome about my books. She’s been absolutely amazing the last few months, even helping me brain storm plot problems. Love you, Momma!

I want to thank my husband for always saying I could make this writing thing work and for never giving up on me, even though he never actually reads my books. Thank you for believing in me without any evidence that you should!

I want to thank my mother-in-law for taking care of my kid and being as supportive as I allow her to be. True, I am not as forthcoming with her about my books as I am with the rest of my family, and despite knowing she’s being kept in the dark, she is still encouraging.

I want to thank my sister-in-law for reading my last book, taking me to lunch, and telling me why she loved it! I want to thank my brother who is, no doubt, bemused by what I write, and still tells me to keep on keeping on.

I want to thank my daughter for letting mommy write even when I’m sure she’d like my attention.

I want to thank my father for employing me and for making sure that I have the financial freedom to try to make my dreams come true. Without him I would be nothing, we would be nothing, and he truly is the wind beneath my wings. He doesn’t get the credit for that that he deserves. I do know, Daddy. I know. And I thank you for it.

I want to thank my readers, because you might not be my family, but you make the sacrifices and encouragement worth it. You are the people who buy the end product and I cannot possibly thank you enough for that.

I am such a lucky and loved person, and I feel that every day in so many ways. I needed to acknowledge it.
THANK YOU.