Happy Nielsen — I hope you realize how much this community loves you. Daniel Coates — you are a walking ray of sunshine, Blissey in human form, and I’m very glad to know you.

Five Good Things

The Fictionstack community It took me six years to write Grumble and Gasp, and it’s not exactly a long book. But since joining this community, I’ve been writing like a tornado of ink pens… a pennado, if you will. This place is the most supportive, welcoming, and encouraging corner of the internet I’ve ever found, and I am writing up a storm now because of you all.

The wife I’ve never really had anyone support my writing before. I come from a blue-collar background, this wasn’t exactly the expected path. Past partners ranged from indifferent to openly mocking Then I met the wife. Three years later, I’m a published author. Turns out having someone firmly in your corner is a bit like having a superpower.

Traveling I left America at 17. (I’ll be 47 this July.) Since then I’ve lived in thirteen countries and visited somewhere in the thirties. Traveling is my great joy, getting to live among different cultures, learn from them, and somehow make a life out of it has been an incredible blessing.

Reading When I was a kid, my grandfather got an Apple II with a speed-reading program. It taught me to read fast and remember everything. I have absolutely abused this ability ever since. From sneaking Stephen King from a cool aunt, to borrowing fantasy from cousins, to… appropriating my mom’s bodice rippers in times of literary drought. Reading shaped everything. I travel because I read. I adventure because I read. I write because stories are the blood running through my veins.

God The world can be a hard place. I’ve seen beauty, but I’ve also seen a world of pain and confusion. For a long time, none of it made sense to me. Then I found faith, and with it a different way of seeing things. I learned about God’s love for us, his patience with us, and most importantly, his incredibly giant plan to rescue us from ourselves, even when we can’t see all of it yet. It changed my life, and it continues to shape how I move through the world. I think those of you floundering in the fall of the west would really benefit by looking into it.

The Circus Dragon, Sol ☼, Tamsin G. I’d love to hear the things that make you three the joyous people you are.