Thanksgiving (Anne Stuart)

So, okay, maybe I jumped the gun a bit about Christmas, forgetting the Thanksgiving part. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, and not just because it's about food. For one thing, it's the official start of the Christmas season, which is my favorite time of year. For another, I get to see all my family and I don't have to drive (they all come to me).
But most of all, it's because it's about joy and gratitude. Everything positive, nothing negative. I have a very hard time with negativity when the world's full of such wonderful things, and I'm a great believer in celebrating.
So let me tell you what I'm grateful for. I'm grateful for the people in my life who are clean and sober after hard times. Hell, I'm grateful for the people in my life who are relatively clean and sober (progress, not perfection). I've had a number of people in my life who died from addictions, and I can't afford to lose any more.

I'm grateful to the most wonderful friends in the world. People close to me -- Jenny Crusie the fierce and fabulous, Maggie Shayne, Lynn Kerstan. And people I don't know that well, like Deb Smith and Patricia Rice. Anything that makes me realize what good friends I have is a Good Thing.

I'm grateful to my fabulous agent, Jane Dystel, who goes to battle for me, soothes my wounded soul and always keeps one step ahead of things.

I'm very grateful to the hardworking editors, press people, marketing people, bookstore workers, etc. Anyone who toils in the publishing/bookselling industry. They're usually overworked and underpaid and put up with it because they love what they do, and we couldn't survive without them

And I'm most grateful to people who read. To those who read my books and love them, to those who read any books and love them. Reading is a joy and a lifesaver, a cure for cancer or a tough day at the office. And if people didn't read I'd be saying "you want fries with that?"

In fact, what I'm most grateful to is my Higher Power, sometimes referred to as God, among other things. My higher power gave me talent and the ability to work hard and persevere. God gave me luck and timing. It was the readers who put me on the New York Times list at looooong last, it was God's grace that let it happen.

So I'm thankful, and grateful for all the many good things that have happened, and even thankful for the bad things, which make the good things all the sweeter.

And I hope you all have as many things to feel thankful about as I do, because I've been truly blessed.