A Season of Gratitude

Hi,

Happy Holidays!! (Note: I prefer to wish everyone, no matter what their spiritual outlook, a happy time as they celebrate their own beliefs -- just saying.) Anyway -- No matter what you celebrate, this is traditionally a season of gratitude, and I think nonfiction writers have a lot to be grateful for these days.

I could start with the Common Core, but that may or may not become a boon to our business. Instead I am grateful for a job that allowed me to stay home with my children for 20 years.  Yikes! When I say it like that it seems like a long time, but boy did it go quickly.

I'm grateful for the technology that allows me to write and revise so easily.  I remember my Mom, Margery Facklam, writing her first books using carbon paper and a typewriter.  I wonder if she was more thoughtful in her revisions compared to me who goes back and forth with a click of a key.  Plus, she actually knew how many times she revised.  I'm just constantly revising.

I am thankful for a community of writers who support one another.  Children's writers are, by far, the most supportive people I know.  We don't think of other writers as competition.  They are colleagues struggling with the same difficulties.

I'm thankful for true stories unveiling themselves everyday - in the news, in my life, in other books. For the Internet that makes preliminary research effortless, and puts experts in my living room.

I'm grateful for new purple pens.  And new notebooks with gleaming white pages.

For libraries and librarians, and especially kids who love reading nonfiction.

What are you grateful for?