Ten Writerly Reasons To Be Thankful

Thank you Google, Wikipedia, other parts of the Internet: though you are often a distraction, you are just as often a life-saving research helper.
Thank you to my publisher who believed in my story enough to bring my books to a wider audience. Thank you for sending my book to reviewers, entering my books in contests, and helping me to learn how to be an author.
Thank you booksellers for carrying my book, inviting me for events, and recommending my books to your customers.
Thank you book reviewers – from newspaper columnists, journals, and commenters on Goodreads, Amazon, and book blogs near and far – you are helping others to hear about my book and telling readers who don’t know me about my novels.
Thank you writer organizations, especially my Sisters in Crime, who support, motivate, and mentor women writers.
Thank you librarians. You go above and beyond what is available from the web for research, and I appreciate you for buying my books for the library and having me come speak to patrons.
Thank you writer groups for motivating me to write and for reading and commenting on my work. A special thanks to those writer friends who answer my panicked calls to read something quickly, commiserate with me on the trials of the writer’s life, and celebrate with me when I experience a success.
Thank you friends for reading my books and recommending others do, too.
Thank you to my family who supports this weird thing I do where I hide out for hours, days, years while I attempt to create new worlds and sometimes do nothing at all but dream. Thank you also for buying my books and telling your friends about the author in the family.
And last but not least, thank you so much to my readers – people who buy my books, check them out at libraries, tell your friends about me. You are why I am more than a writer. You make me an author, and for that, I am especially thankful.