The Gracious Writer

Happy Thursday everyone! For years Thursday was one of my most fave days. The eve before Friday, the intro into the weekend. However, and I don't know how superstitious you are, Thursday has forever been tainted for me. Years ago, twenty-five to be exact, I met my sister. A friendship that was forged out of work boredom, thirty minute lunches and general avoidance for a few of our co-workers. She was my person. My go to for everything good, all the bad, and simple morning conversation. But with her friendship, came a small price. Anything that was life altering in a negative way for her, could be pin pointed to one day—Thursday.

Overtime, Thursday decided our friendship warranted a new member. So I was unwillingly inducted into the awful Thursday club. In December, I lost my sister... my best friend. I asked her to take Thursday's with her before she left. She said she would try. Apparently the Thursday curse cannot be lifted, rather, passed on. I've recently inducted a new member into the dreaded Thursday curse, not intentionally, as I'm sure was the case with my friend. I apologize, you know who you are.

Now what does this have to do with my intended subject today? Absolutely nothing. But it's Thursday, and I thought I'd share.

What I would like to talk about today is something I call, the gracious writer. As authors we are forever striving to saturate social media, participate in signings, and generally get the word out about our books. It's up to us to conduct ourselves as representatives of our publishers, personally, and our profession. Far too often, I have participated in a multi-author signing thinking that we were all in it together, only to find out, not everyone thinks like I do. In fact, they possess a completely different set of rules. This is both disheartening and useless.

At a meeting last week for our upcoming event Local Women in Literature and Their Stories, the ladies attending and myself, discussed this very issue. The answer we came up with, in unison, is that there is a reader out there for every author. Just because two authors write romance, their style, content, characters, are unique to their voice. There should be no room for competition or petty moves. We are, quite simply, a family of creative souls. Crossing paths and if we're lucky, holding each other up. We should be cheering on the author next to us, complimenting them to make us all shine. Negativity breeds contempt, leaving a sour taste in your mouth. I don't know about you, but I'd rather taste the sweet joy of success without hurting my colleagues. So before going to that next signing, making the Twitter post for the day, or writing your new blog, ask yourself, are you a gracious writer?