I’m having a couple weeks where every time I sit to do a blog post, I think everything coming out of my head is trite.

A character interview? Ugh.

Talking about the music that’s inspired scenes in my stories? Double ugh.

It doesn’t help that I’m having some issues with my health. Issues that apparently have yet to find a direction with my GP.

Maybe I will do both of those blog post ideas at some point, but I don’t think it’ll be today or even tomorrow. I’m putting far too much pressure on myself to make them ‘good’ and it’s sucking all the fun out.

Instead, I want to talk about how lucky I am. There are so many people in my life who support me and my dreams. I wouldn’t be where I am without them.

It started with my grammie. She encouraged my love of writing by buying me subscriptions to Writer’s Digest and always supporting me. It took a while, but even my mom now sees that writing isn’t a hobby I’ll drop in a few months because I’m chasing dopamine.

Throughout the last twenty years, I’ve amassed so many writing friends. Some I wrote with collaboratively like Morgan and Bre, and others who I have never wrote with but who feel as if they’re equally part of my soul like Fred, Ellie, Cosmic, and Josey.

But my husband? He’s my biggest supporter. If it wasn’t for Greg, I wouldn’t be as close to publishing as I am.

He’s the one who told me we’d be fine if I quit my job after having an emotional breakdown after a particularly terse day with one of my colleagues. He’s the one who told me I’d never truly know if I could make it as an author if I didn’t take the chance.

Greg celebrates all my wins with me no matter how small, and he holds space for me when I think this dream is never going to happen. Any sort of success I’ve had – personal or professional – is because of the support I receive daily.

I think that’s true for mostly people, even when it doesn’t feel that way because they’re too busy looking at everything else they had to do on their own.

Having a village is important for successes and failures, and I hope that my journey as an author will allow me to help others on their journey. I want to build a community of people who are genuinely excited for each other’s successes.

I also want to thank those who are already with me.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you.