Thank You

From the bottom of my heart. Seriously.

The comments, the emails, the cards... the everything. Thank you all so much for your kind, kind words and support last month. They meant more to me than you'll ever know.

They kept me afloat during a rough period of time.

I lost my grandmother on January 27th, three days after my last post. To say that it was sad--shattering, even--for my family and I would be an understatement.

I've had some hurtful things thrown my way. Things that kept me up at night, tossing and turning, miserable from the heartburn that always seems to accompany heartbreak.

I hit a rut in my writing. Losing someone you love, no matter how you lose them, can snuff your creativity the way a tornado can blow out a tea light candle.

I... could go on and on. But I won't, because the point here isn't to complain. The point is that time gives us the grace to move forward, and after a month of taking baby steps toward that grace, my strides have lengthened into a sprint--and I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm finally back :)

Forever altered, for sure, but ready to resume life. Ready to catch up with you all, because I've missed you so. Tell me what you've been up to in the comments, I'm dying to know! Catch me up with everything! 

Before I go, though, I wanted to share something kind of cool.

When my aunt submitting my grandmother's obituary to the Washington Post, a reporter decided to look into Nana's life--and ended up writing a half-page article about her.

The picture in the article is of my grandparents in a NY restaurant, in the 1940s
(The full article is found online here, if you're interested: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/19/AR2011021904486.html) 

The article itself is pretty amazing. I hang from every word, each time I read it. But toward the end of the column, I read something I never knew: 

"Her memberships included the Society of Children's Book Writers, Mystery Writers of America and the American Association of University Women."

And I think: Hmmm... Society of Children's Book Writers? As in... Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators? As in SCBWI? The same organization that I'm a part of?

And then I smile.