Gratitude ... and a Video

Cricket McRae



Yesterday I drove down to Denver to have lunch with my publicist at Midnight Ink, who's there for a trade show. She's a delight, and three and half hours slid away like it was nothing. Our afternoon together sparked thoughts on the drive home about all the people who have helped my writing career in both small and large ways.

And that in turn sparked a memory. Hadn't I already written a post here about how lucky I felt? Yep, it turns out I did, and it was timed almost exactly the same as this one: right before the release of a book.

That post was prior to the release of Spin a Wicked Web, book three in my Home Crafting Mystery Series. This time Something Borrowed, Something Bleu is due out in six days. Funny how the prospect of a book hitting the shelves fills me with gratitude. Or maybe not so funny. Maybe it's just right.

I've thanked everyone I've worked with at the publisher, the terrific group here at Inkspot, kind blurbers, reviewers and, of course, readers. My acknowledgements mention my agent(s), family, friends, critique partners and people who helped me with research. This fourth book is dedicated to libraries everywhere.

And I'm still grateful to them all.

But unmentioned elsewhere are the other writers who encouraged me early in my journey and also later in my career. Fellow workshoppers and students, teachers and generous published writers. The time William Dietrich told me to never stop writing because I told a good story and he knew I'd make it. When William Kittredge told me after a creative nonfiction workshop that I'd be published within two years (it was close). My chance encounter with Skye Kathleen Moody in the basement of the Denny Building at UW and her out-of-the-blue offer to read my manuscript and recommend it to her agent if she liked it. Robert Michael Pyle's constant, gentle appreciation of my off-the-cuff prose.

Over the years I've contacted them all to say thanks.

And now there are the people in the various professional organizations who offer advice, camaraderie and keep me sane simply because they get it. I've heard of stingy, jealous writers, but I have yet to run into any of them.

Of course I may have tempted fate by writing that. I'll let you know.

Anyway, the book is coming out next week, and I'm guesting at various blogs and wandering around to book stores to do my dog-and-pony show (since it's just me maybe it's only a pony show?). For anyone interested, the whole schedule is here.

Now I'll leave you with the trailer for Something Borrowed, Something Bleu. And THANKS!

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