Today is Thanksgiving in the U.S. The day we eat too much food, roll our eyes at the antics of our extended family, and think about all the things we’re grateful for. Or in my case, wait for the tryptophan to kick in from the turkey so I can catch up on sleep.
Last year for my Thanksgiving post, I revealed that the best reason for me to blog is all of you. And that’s still the case. In fact, my gratitude for all the friends I’ve made via blogging and Twitter goes even deeper this year.
Last year, I spent a good portion of my Thanksgiving weekend working on my entry for the Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart contest. So I tried to learn from that mistake and have been working non-stop for the past month and a half to finish my entry before Thanksgiving. Sounds smart, right?
However, that meant I needed a last-minute-sanity-check beta read of my 52-page entry on the day before Thanksgiving. *cue the “good luck with that” laughter* Despite the unlikelihood of a positive response, I put out a call for help on Twitter.
I had more people offering to help than I could use. *hugs Twitter*
Angela Quarles, a Twitter friend and regular commenter here, stepped up and not only read the whole thing on her phone (while she was supposed to be doing other things), but she also typed up paragraphs’ worth of feedback on her phone. My thumbs cramp just thinking about that. Do we need more proof than that of how awesome the writing community is?
We do? Okay, my thanks go out to my Tech Guy (who’s also a beta reader extraordinaire) and PW Creighton who also gave their help yesterday.
These connections we make with social media, blogging, and Twitter are real. We do favors for each other and support each other. Heck, even Dean, the guy from OfficeMax who helped me with the printing and shipping, went out of his way by printing up a free, bound copy of my entry to keep. How cool is that?
I’m grateful for this contest deadline because it gave me that reminder. Even though I always try to be conscious of all the blessings I’ve been given, a little reminder to stop and be thankful for all that others do for us doesn’t hurt.
So my sincere thanks go out to all of you. You make this all worth it and you show me every day how much we mean to each other in our real life. *hugs internet*
Have you ever been surprised by an online-only friend going out of their way to be helpful to you? Did you meet your critique partners or beta readers online? What online writer communities have you had the best luck with for finding friends? What are you thankful for?
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