This is the time of year when Americans are supposed to be organized about gratitude, rather than the scattershot, hit-and-miss way we go about it the other 364 days of the year. As a prolific writer, I have to sit back and think about people for whom I'm grateful five or six times a year, when I write the acknowledgments for any given book. Those are usually confined to people who had a particular impact on that project, though, or on my career--my editor, my agent, my web mistress, my family, people who helped with research, etc. And i am indeed grateful to them all. It's hard being a freelance writer--not as hard as genuinely difficult jobs, like rodeo clown or oil field roughneck, but it comes with its own unique set of challenges, and I need all the help I can get to meet them.
But there are other people for whom I'm deeply grateful, too. Anyone who shells out six or seven bucks for one of my books, or three or four for a comic. Money's hard to come by these days, and I don't take for granted that people are going to throw it my way. There are way too many ways to spend money, and anyone who feels strongly enough that something I've written is worth some of theirs has my profound thanks.
Ditto anyone who reads my work, whether borrowed, bought, checked out from a library, or otherwise obtained. With all the demands on everyone's time, with all the books and comics and movies and TV shows to eat up free time, not to mention work and sleep and family and all the other things that occupy a life, I appreciate the minutes or hours you spend on my stories.
Anyone who goes above and beyond to review my work, or tell friends, or spread the word in any way, deserves my deep appreciation. Building a writing career is a challenging, one reader at a time thing, and by taking that extra step, you're helping to insure that I'll be able to continue telling stories into the future.
Of course, there are many, many people to whom I'm grateful who have nothing to do with my career, or even with me personally. The ranchers and farmers who grow our food, the soldiers stationed far away from their families, the workers who keep the internet functioning and deliver the mail and teach children and bind books and create TV shows and movies and clean up the roads and enforce the law...we live in a vast, interconnected society, and we are all tied together by the things we do and say and believe. We're connected, I like to think, more than we're divided--as Americans, as humans, as beings on Earth and in the universe.
So thanks to you all, to everyone who's reading these words right now, and everyone who isn't. I couldn't do what I do without you, and you are appreciated.
