Always More To Be Thankful For

So, today's post will be brief, because, you know, it's today, and I've got a lot to do in the kitchen.
On the theme of who or what to be thankful for, I've already said a lot over the past year, in no small part to this year being a HUGE one in terms of "being thankful".  I've talked at length about some key people who I'm thankful for, and in the acknowledgements page of Thorn I list a bunch more. 
But there is someone I don't list, but who did something I was quite thankful for-- who personified what I think a writers community should be about.  Her name was Brenna Smith.
I was at the DFW Writers Conference, back in 2011 before I had secured my agent.  That conference is one where fledgling professional writers have the opportunity to pitch to agents.  If you are in the query/pitch stage of things, and you can manage going to one of these, I can highly recommend it, because you are surrounded by your peers.  Just about everyone there is in the same place.
Well, as I was in that place, I had been querying Thorn and Holver Alley Crew (what would become A Murder of Mages was still a rough draft at that point), and I had a pitch meeting scheduled for Sunday morning.  I had spent Saturday going to panels, practicing my pitch, and beating down my nerves.
And then a little after 5pm, I got the email.  A rejection on one of my queries for Holver Alley Crew.  By the very agent I was scheduled to pitch to the next morning.
Needless to say, I was a wreck. 
So, I'm sitting there, brooding, and this woman--- Brenna--  is with a group of people, and she spots me and calls me over to join them.  She immediately zeroes in on something being wrong and pulls it out of me. 
Once I tell her, she asks, "What do you write?"
"Fantasy."
"All right, hold on."
The various agents attending the conference are all at a dinner with the organizers, and the big mixer was scheduled to start in a little bit.  She slips off and then comes back in a few minutes. 
"Come with me." 
She brings me into the ballroom near the door where the agents are going to enter in from the dinner.  When they start to come in, she goes up to one and starts chatting her up.  She gently leads this agent in my direction, and then goes, "Oh, hey, have you met Marshall?  He writes fantasy books.  Oh, I have to check on something, I'll be right back."
And thus, there I was, in a casual, impromptu pitch with a completely new agent.  And it was casual and organic feeling-- we talked about Buffy and D&D and worldbuilding before she said, "So, tell me about your book."
That, friends, was exactly what I needed in order to not end up in a meltdown.  Now, of course, that pitch didn't end up with representation... but having the shot did a lot to bring me back to a balanced place.
And it was all thanks to Brenna Smith.
Every writers community needs a Brenna, I think.  So while we're all being thankful, we should also think about how to be the person that others are thankful for.  Because that person can make a huge difference, and that's how we pay it forward.

Thank You...

Before I say my thanks, let me say this to all of you:

I hope that you and your dearests

are together for the holidays,

that you hug, that you laugh,

and that you give and receive all the love you can.

There are so many people I would and should thank. For the most part, you know who you are and
you know that I am grateful and value what you offered/are offering to my writing path.

Writing is such a solitary act that it's easy to get lost in that lonely chair where your sole company is a white page dotted with your own words. But lately, talking book with my son (#3 of 4) has been refreshing, rewarding, reaffirming, and...the effect has been /mighty/. He has hopes of becoming a writer for video games, and as we talk I find his creativity prods me to look at my own in new ways. Also, he shows me things through a younger-generation lens, things that I have missed being so long in my lonely chair.


So I owe him. In addition to the responsibility I have to him as his mother, I owe him an extra dose of gratitude because those conversations give me back so much. Parents don't always have careers or hobbies that resonate with their children in such a way that the child seeks them out to talk about it. He does, and not only to tell me what he is working on...he asks me often for updates about my writing projects.

I cannot tell you how much that means to me.

And to my other son yet at home (#4 of 4)...who is into writing fan fiction and acting at the moment... he recently did something that made me cry. I have a dry erase board with my WIP outline. And one day I looked at it and realized there was something new on it. A heart drawn in the corner and the words: "Your working hard, keep it up, mom! love you"

That he took the time to scrawl an encouraging message, and was then silent about it (for how long?)...there is no greeting card lovelier than that drawn heart, and there is no fancily written poem that could evoke more from me than those few written words from him.

Showing them that you can do anything you set your mind to, that dreams are attainable with work, isn't just a meme I parrot to them. It is more than a lesson, it is a truth that I am blessed to be living proof of.

So yeah, I write for me...but I have maintained my goals because of them.

I will ever be thankful for my boys.