Thanksgiving, the holiday in which I routinely overeat myself into an early bedtime and then find myself somehow eating even more the next day, is upon us tomorrow. There aren’t a lot of preparations for us to make this year — we’re visiting family in Connecticut and eating at the Quinnipiack Club instead of at home — but the miserable weather conditions in the Northeast are bringing on all the stress we thought we’d gotten rid of by not having to plan the meal. So far, though, it looks like Metro-North will be okay tomorrow, and despite my usual, free-floating worries, I’m pretty sure all the roads in Connecticut, where they are forecast to get a lot more snow than we are here in New York City, will be plowed by the time we arrive.
So what am I thankful for this year? Lots. As always, I’m extremely thankful for my loving, patient, funny wife, Alexa, who surprises me every day with how amazing and gifted she is. I’m thankful for all my family members, even the ones who drive me batty sometimes. I know how lucky I am to have them in my life, and when you boil it down, they’ve never been anything but supportive. I’m thankful for all my friends, near and far, the ones I see all the time and the ones I see only rarely. I’m lucky to have such a wide circle of friends, and I cherish each and every one of them.
I’m thankful that I’m getting to live the dream I’ve had since I was young: to be a published author. I’m thankful for my amazing agent, Richard Curtis, who saw something in my work that he thought was worth representing even though his plate was already beyond full. I’m thankful for my editor at St. Martin’s, Michael Homler, who took a chance on a relative unknown. I’m thankful for everyone at St. Martin’s who’s got my back, from editorial assistant extraordinaire Lauren Jablonski to the marketing and publicity folks to the book designers to the sales force. It takes a village to make a book happen. In fact, I’m thankful for all the great editors and publishers I’ve worked with in my writing career, with special, well-deserved shout outs to the Canadians: Brett Savory, Sandra Kasturi, and Monica Kuebler.
And finally, I’m thankful for each and every one of you who has bought one of my books, enjoyed it, and helped spread the word about it to your friends and family. Writing is a difficult and lonely endeavor — most of the time, it’s just you and your computer and loads of self-doubt (and also sometimes a cat or two) — and all of that effort and frustration would be meaningless without you. I treasure each and every email I get letting me know how much one of you has enjoyed my work. It reaffirms that I’m not just sending the words I sweated over out into an empty void, that I’m actually touching people’s lives, entertaining them, maybe even igniting a spark in their own imaginations to write their own stories. I’m thankful to all of you for that. I often say at my readings that we writers couldn’t do what we do without you readers, and I mean it wholeheartedly. Thank you.
I’m thankful for all of you.
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