This time of year is a wonderful time to reflect on the people and things you are grateful for, and this year, I have a lot of things to be grateful for. For today’s post, I wanted to share things I’ve been extremely thankful for when it comes to my writing and experiences as an author.

The first thing I’m so very grateful for is my husband. He has been supportive of my writing since the very beginning, reading every book I’ve ever written. His careful eye and suggestions are always so helpful in improving my stories. He’s also VERY patient with me, being supportive of me chasing after my author dreams even when money has been tight. It’s all paying off, and I couldn’t be more grateful for him. He’s also so wonderfully involved with our son. I work, and I’ve done so many more author events this year than I ever thought I would. Brandon has been there, chasing our little kiddo around the bookstore because I didn’t want to be away from them longer than I had to. 

I’m also grateful for our sweet baby (I guess he’s not so much a baby anymore!) boy. Having our son pushed me in a lot of ways. He made me brave enough to try new things, and gave me the courage I needed to finally get into illustrating. He has inspired so many stories in the time I’ve had him in my life. I am also grateful for his sweet demeanor, colorful imagination, and curiosity and involvement with my work and writing. He loves books almost as much as I do, and I love that we have this beautiful thing in common. 

I am grateful for the members of my family who remain enthusiastic and excited about my writing, who want to be with me and support me through the many aspects of my writing. I am grateful to my editors and my beta readers, for finding the time to read my work and help me make it better before I release it. 

I am also incredibly grateful for my job at the University of Utah Reading Clinic. For a looooong list of reasons, but in connection to my writing, my colleagues have been so supportive. My boss has found ways for me to connect writing and illustrating to the work I do for the clinic, allowing me to work on our growing list of early reading texts for struggling readers. We call them our Phonics Readers, and Phonics Comics. This year, for a number of reasons, I decided to lower my hours to halftime. I am so grateful that this job has allowed me the freedom and stability to do so. Being able to lower my hours has granted me so much more time to spend with my kiddo, and because I’ve had more time with my son, I can spend my daily writing time without feeling so guilty and worried about all the other things I’m not getting done. 

​I’m thankful for the amazing community I have found, both online and in person. I’m thankful for all the wonderful readers and writers I have met, and for those who have reached out to discuss their reading and writing with me. I’m grateful to all the bookstores who have allowed me to do events and get my books in their stores. All of you have allowed me to make my dream come true.

I’m grateful for my ability to read, and I’m so grateful for the number of authors out there releasing their beautiful stories into the world for consumption. My reading has always inspired and helped me to develop my writing, and I will forever be grateful for that.

I’m grateful that I was able to receive a good education that allowed me the opportunity to grow as a writer and as a person. I’m so thankful that I was able to start on my author journey at a young age, and that I’ve really been able to push myself and build my list of published works. I’m grateful for the time I spent teaching English and working with students on their reading and writing, and for the students who have reached out to tell me about their writing projects and aspirations.

Finally, as slow as my recovery has been, I’m very grateful I was able to get surgery to fix the carpal tunnel in both of my hands. This is something that has bothered me for years, and it got so bad that I spent most of my days and nights not being able to feel my hands, but experiencing pain all through my arms. It affected my writing, my ability to do things with my hands (like drive or open jars). I’m grateful to say that after getting this surgery a little over a month ago, I have experienced minimal numbness, no upper arm pain, and I’m sleeping like a dang baby. I know it will take some time to get back to where I can write every day (or do other things with my hands) without experiencing pain, but I’m so grateful to know that I’m on the right road, and that it will continue to get better. 

I hope you all have a safe, happy Thanksgiving, and that you take a moment to reflect on things you are grateful for. If you feel so inclined, I’d love to hear what you feel thankful for this year!

Other, sillier things that I’ve found myself grateful for this year include: sunrises and sunsets, being able to perceive things with my senses and translate those perceptions into my writing, pens, being able to type on a computer or keep notes in my phone, good movies that inspire me to write differently, my interest in various genres, and coffee.

Last weekend was the official release of the children’s book, “The Little Red Fergie” by author Gary R. Motte. As the illustrator (and publisher), I’ve been tracking pre-sales and was able to attend and help facilitate Fergie’s book launch party. And let me tell you, I was outrageously impressed. Today, I wanted to share with you some insights that I took away from this whole experience, watching this children’s book flourish even before its release. 

The author has built himself an incredibly supportive and enthusiastic community. As authors, that’s really what we need. Writing is often a very solitary experience, so having a community - especially to celebrate the momentous accomplishment of releasing your books - is so crucial. Motte has spent years building his community, and when he finally published his first book, the community rallied.

I had to drive from Sandy, UT to Price, UT after finishing my own book signing event earlier that afternoon. For those of you who are not in Utah, this is about a two hour drive. Because of this long drive, I ended up getting to Fergie’s event right at 5:00, when the event was supposed to begin. I was blown away by the amount of people who were already there, ready and waiting to purchase their own copies (yes, I did say copies) of this book. Before I could even get the books on the table or plug in my card reader into my phone, I had people swarming the table asking for books. 

And we completely sold out of books in the first hour and a half. After we sold out, we still had people stopping at the table to order books. 

I have never seen this happen before - especially not for a debut book. The general number of sales that an author can safely expect to make at any given event is five books. While I’ve been fortunate to consistently sell between eight and thirty books at my book signing events, I have never heard of a first time author completely selling out of their stock. On release day (just at this event, not including any pre-sales or sales made after release), we sold 70 books!

This author has been daring and driven, and he’s gone the extra mile to ask local businesses if they would allow him to advertise his book with them. He was met with an astonishing amount of yesses, reminding me that it’s so important to reach out. The very worst thing that can happen is they say no, and then you’ve lost nothing, but you’ve still made the effort to put yourself and your work out there. 

Anyway, that’s about all I’ve got for today. I am so proud of this author for his hard work and bravery in putting himself out there. It’s really paying off, and he’s off to an amazing start. 

If you would like to purchase this book for yourself, you can do so by clicking any of the following buttons, or finding it elsewhere online. NOTE: As illustrator and publisher, I will receive some compensation for book sales. 

We as human beings often have a difficult time taking constructive feedback, even when we love our work and yearn to improve. In fact, I would say especially if we love our work and yearn to improve, it’s all too easy to have our feelings hurt in the process. As a reading intervention specialist, tutor mentor, writer, editor and publisher, I give and receive a lot of professional feedback. Today, I wanted to share my thoughts on some ways that you as the feedback giver can make it easier for the feedback receiver to be more receptive to the feedback you are providing. I wanted to share this post for anyone who is in a position where they have to provide others with professional development feedback, but especially for editors. 

So, here are some ways you as the feedback giver can not only soften the blow, but actually make the person you are giving feedback to more receptive. 

1. Avoid absolutes. I never say “you need to do this.” 
Why? Because, technically speaking, the writer (or employee, etc), doesn’t technically need to do anything. Especially for writers, it’s their story. It’s their vision, and they have the final say in how they want things to be. If they don’t like your feedback, they can publish their story elsewhere without ever implementing a single word you said. 

Instead, I would recommend using phrases like, “I would like to see…” “As a reader, I wanted/felt…” “You may want to…” “I would recommend…” or “The story could be better if…” 

Using this verbiage implies a suggestion rather than a demand. Even if it feels critical that the story has more or less of XYZ, if the writer feels defensive or attacked by your recommendation, they will be much more likely to struggle with fixing the issue in a productive, effective way, or they may disregard the suggestion altogether. 

If you’ve made the same suggestion before, I find it’s a helpful, gentle nudge to say, “Remember…” 

I would also recommend (see, I just did it ;)) adding an explanation (even if it’s a quick one) wherever possible. Being able to explain why you’re making the recommendations you are making allows the receiver a lens through which to view your perspective, which can help get them out of their head a little bit about their work. 

Caveat - As I mentioned earlier, we as human beings are built to have feelings. That means that, even if you do all the things above and you’re the gentlest feedback giver of all time, you may still hurt someone’s feelings. That’s okay. The important thing here is growth and intention. 

Note - Today’s post was written because I give and receive a lot of professional development feedback, and these are things that I have found useful in the feedback I share (and that I have sometimes wished someone else had thought about when giving me feedback). This is one style of providing feedback, and I do not in any way claim that it’s the best or most effective. What I have found is that these suggestions have made my feedback receivers much more receptive and appreciative of the feedback I provide.