Thanksgiving 2011

This year, I am thankful for:

Cate — my stubborn, brave, flawed little witch. I have never heard a character’s voice so strongly before. Plot knots, worldbuilding questions — I struggle with those sometimes. But Cate has been gloriously Cate from the very beginning.

The book deal that enabled me to become a full-time writer, to work from home in my pajamas with The Playwright and Monkey and my own giant mugs of tea. That let me call myself an author. That made a childhood dream into something real, tangible, stressful, glorious, mine.

My Amazing Editor, Ari Lewin, who is brilliant and generous and makes me laugh. I can’t wait to send her this new draft. I hope she will love it, but I know she will help me make it better. I am almost past that stomach-dropping fear when I see her number on my phone, that tiny bit of worry that maybe this is all a mad dream, because she almost always actually has good news.

My husband, The Playwright, who is really just unfailingly generous. Also fun. Which is good, because we spend an awful lot of time together these days. I am pretty certain I would murder anyone else.

My friends, who have encouraged me and celebrated with me and answered my flailmails and understood when I canceled plans to stay in and write.

Monkey. I know cats don’t live forever, and he’s fifteen. I cherish all of our naptime cuddles.

Twitter. Really. It makes working from home much less lonely.

Tea. I am no longer sure I can function, much less write, without Earl Grey.

* * *

The Playwright and I aren’t doing traditional family Thanksgiving this year. Instead we’re staying home and playing board games and drinking wine and watching football, eating crab cakes and garlicky mac & cheese and hot-sauce green beans and chocolate chess pie. Writing, probably, too, because that’s how we roll.

Happy Thanksgiving to you & yours! Feel free to share your thankful list or your holiday traditions in the comments. I’d love to hear about them.