Happy Thanksgiving!

by Allison Pang

So, first off to our American readers, we hope you're enjoying your holiday wherever and however you choose to celebrate it - and to that effect, I'm going to keep this post short and sweet.

Like several of my other Word Whores, I don't really tend to celebrate the milestones of my writing career in big ways - first, there are plenty I haven't met yet and some I'm never likely to meet - and that's okay. But that being said, I allow myself small celebrations.

(Usually in the form of guilt-free time wasting - e.g. a day or two of playing video games or reading a book or sewing - or just catching up on TV without

the productivity fairy hanging over my head. It's funny - people always go on about how they'd write a book if "only they had time" or wonder how I manage to do the work/kid/writing thing - and what I mentioned up above? That's it. I sacrifice some things to make room for others, so when I reach a milestone, I reward myself with time to do those things I miss.)

Oh...and I also reward myself with Legos - which I'm pretty sure I've mentioned in previous posts. That Lego Death Star is waiting for me, oh yes, it is.

*cough*

But even when I got "the call" from the agent and the editor and all that, it wasn't that I didn't get excited - I did. But I never went out to dinner or broke open the champagne. For me there's always been that "waiting for the other shoe to drop" thing. (Plus that sort of "oh shit" moment when I realized that yeah, now I'm actually accountable for producing things on a deadline. Whoops. And for every milestone I reach? There's another one waiting on the horizon.)

But still. Work and deadlines and crazy schedules aside, I'm thankful for having the opportunities that I do - and the best way to celebrate that is to go out there and make the most of them.