This Thanksgiving, I’d like to offer gratitude to writers who have inspired me and influenced my craft.
From the depths of my writing heart, I would like to thank…
Sara Letourneau, for awing me with the diversity and prolificacy of your blog, and for being my DIY MFA buddy.
Ann Kroeker, for quick-to-absorb, powerfully direct writing lessons via podcast and blog posts.
Modern Mrs. Darcy, for book recommendations so accurate and well-curated that I could copy and paste them onto my Goodreads to-read list.
DIY MFA instigator Gabriela Periera, for podcast interviews with phenomenal writers, for bringing the affectionate term “Word Nerd” into wide use, and of course, for letting me contribute to the DIY MFA program!
Barbara Baig, for free sharing of the ingenious Mastery Path via online lessons.
Kathy of Catching Happiness, for posts that hit the emotional mark again and again, and for being such a loyal commenter here on this blog.
Laura Vanderkam, for not only giving the world an optimistic perspective on time and life management, but providing women like me an example of a professional writer who truly makes it work.
The Gotham Writer’s Workshop, for giving me my first taste of quality writing classes and workshops.
The Writer’s Digest team, for putting together a conference I look forward to every year, and for multiple blog series that never fail to inform and uplift.
And, though they’re not constant presences in my life the way the above folks are, I’d like to thank L. M. Montgomery for starting me on the road to deep imagination; Ann Martin for providing a whole series of well-structured YA novels at just the age I needed them; J.K. Rowling for giving me a magical world to retreat to; Jane Austen for showing me how to write real emotion even within constrained characters; Philippa Gregory for inspiring me to write historical fiction; J. Courtney Sullivan for showing me how to write from multiple perspectives; Agatha Christie for blowing my mind with attention to detail and character motivation; and Jodi Picoult for teaching empathy by making me see all sides of controversial issues.
My deepest gratitude to all of you, for contributing to the writer I am today.
Whether they’ve impacted you directly or indirectly, are alive or dead, whom in your profession would you like to thank?
Oh goodness, thank you, Leanne. 🙂 And I’m grateful for having you as a DIY MFA buddy, too, and for meeting you during Writer’s Digest Conference!
I am so touched and thrilled that you’ve enjoyed my blog posts–thank YOU for the shout out! I really enjoy reading your blog–I feel the same way about many things your mention (including L.M. Montgomery and Jane Austen, in particular), which makes it quite easy to comment.
You asked who we would like to thank, and I would have to put my high school creative writing teacher at the top of the list. Marie Tollstrup changed my life with her teaching, and I’m lucky enough to keep in touch with her still. I’d add Anne Lamott and Stephen King to the list of writers who’ve influenced me through their books on writing, and Anne Morrow Lindbergh is a personal heroine of mine–I so admire the amount of writing she did, all while raising a large family, flying all over the world crewing for her husband, and dealing with the tragedy of her son’s death.
Sara, Kathy, all gratitude is well-earned! Keep doing what you do, for me and all the others who read your work!