On the sixth day of Christmas…

Even though those twelve days are supposed to start on December 25 and run to Epiphany, Jan. 6, I want to offer my gratitude for the people and things that make the writing life possible for me.

Today, I’m celebrating friends.

As I’ve gotten older I’ve come to cherish my friends more and more. They know me. And I know them. We’ve laughed and cried together, watched our children grow, spent silly days and dark days together.

And they’ve cheered me on when I was writing a book.

And, sometimes, they bought one.

And, always, they inspired characters in my writing. I have a nurse friend who became a character in Divided Loyalties, a high school friend who inspired a character in Inn by the Lake. An attorney friend who advised me in that book, too.

Some of them, the newest ones, are my biggest cheerleaders because they write too. They know what I go through to get a story on a page.

My friends stay close in my heart when I write. I want to remember their love and celebrate it in my writing. I want to remember how they support me, the interest they show in what I write.

Thank you, friends. Old friends, new friends, writer friends. Cherished friends, all.