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Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Hail to the critique group!

So there's five of us. Dede, Kim, Suz, Bob, and I. (me? It's late. My brain hurts) And without the other four, where would I be? Not nearly where I am, that's a fact.

These are the people who read my drafts and tell me the things I need to hear. Tonight Kim showed me nugget of information that I'd almost gotten but not quite but which would be one of the crucial underpinnings of everything that happened later. It was there. I just didn't see it.

We celebrate each other's good fortune and commiserate with the lows. We sneak wine and cheese into the library for each other's birthdays. We pass the red boa along to each other when someone gets published. (It's living at Kim's right now) We gripe and moan when the going gets rough. We sometimes make Bob wish there was another female in the group when we prattle on too long about Gilmore Girls or Kim's new purse or other girly talk. But Bob knows stuff. Like what happens when a grenade goes off. And all about rocks and Alaska and good stuff like that. And he writes cool things like his story about the local ferrier which if you were ignorant like I am, is the guy who shoes all the horses for the mounted patrol people at our mall! We go to conferences together and laugh a lot and work really hard at our craft.

These are the people who met me when I joined up with them about five years ago thinking I might try my hand at some picture books. They were there when I discovered I had other stories to tell. They were there to tell when I received THE CALLs that have changed my life in many ways.

I hope they'll be with me for a long time to come.

Til next time...

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