GRATEFUL and THANKFUL are adjectives describing deep appreciation. Exhibiting both adjectives causes GRATITUDE.
In this month of emphasis on being thankful, I’m an author who is grateful to and thankful for readers who read my books.
Use the comments below and/or on Twitter with these hashtags #grateful #gratitude to share what you’re thankful for today.
Blogging about thankfulness and gratitude in November is cliché, but there’s no better time than the month when our whole nation pauses and gives thanks to focus our thoughts on thankfulness.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that in order to achieve contentment, we should “cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously.”
As we celebrate the coming holiday in America, most of us will have a thankful attitude on Thanksgiving Day. Too often, though, our attention wanes for the rest of the year. We should seek out things daily to be thankful for, i.e. give thanks continuously as Emerson suggests.
Here are two ways to focus an attitude of thankfulness beyond one Thursday in November.
Surprised? In our plugged-in culture, it’s impossible to avoid social media no matter how hard you try so why not use your posts, pictures, videos, and tweets to cultivate thankfulness on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Heaven knows we get enough of wars, earthquakes, floods, fires, sick children, murdered spouses and, lately, politics.
It seems the more suffering and mayhem, the more mass media coverage. Yet research shows the opposite: good news spreads faster and farther than disasters and sob stories.
By sharing positive, uplifting posts, memes, and videos, you encourage attitudes of thankfulness in yourself and others.
According to Henri Frederic Amiel, gratitude is the completion of thankfulness. Writing down what you’re thankful for everyday reinforces positive thoughts and grateful feelings.
We’ll explore gratitude lists more next week. For now, can you think of ways you can foster thankfulness?
We recently drove the San Juan Scenic Byway, also known as the Million Dollar Highway. It’s a spectacular ride if you don’t mind steep cliffs, narrow lanes, zero guardrails, and hairpin “S” curves cut directly into the sides of mountains.
While we human passengers were white-knuckled and breathless, our little Maltese gazed out the window contently enjoying the ride.
Made me think of this quote.
If your life is on a path filled with hazards and challenges, relax and enjoy the journey like Buster.
Our story worlds become tangible to us as writers. A video plays in our head as we write. We see the setting; we feel the emotions. Our characters become genuine people moving in an authentic world we’ve created.
While our story worlds are real to us, the reader enters a story world as a visitor exploring what we’ve created.
Interruptions can happen. The telephone rings, a text comes in, or the doorbell rings. Distractions we choose to ignore or respond to.
If a reader is truly engrossed, they will return to the story world just as we return to our writing.
Not so if the writing itself causes the distractions. Then readers turn from explorers into critics or worse yet, quit reading.
Beth Hill (The Editor’s Blog) says “Interruptions from inside the story world become a part of that world and influence our [readers’] reactions to it.” She offers a list of fiction interrupters that writers should avoid.
These are the interrupters that jar me as a reader.
You can find Ms. Hill’s blog about reader interruptions here. Her list is longer than mine, but neither list contains everything that can distract a reader from a story.
What pulls you from a story when you’re reading?
A blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara
Several months ago, Rachel began a color project with her Bantams. She built six different runs with coops and sorted the birds by breed and color.
Then she hatched eggs and got some very pretty birds. She also hatched some large fowl eggs.
These birds may not be as pretty as the Bantams but some of them are laying beautiful eggs.
Perhaps this was not the intended result of the color project but it is nice.
There is wisdom in this Holley Gerth quote. Are you listening today?
Grammarcheck.net recently posted this infographic of 21 frequently ignored (or unknown) grammar rules and writing mistakes that everyone who writes should know.
How many do you know? How many do you ignore?
I’m with them on all but the serial comma and semicolon. I only use a serial comma for clarity in my writing. And, I think the semicolon is too formal for my voice. I only add it when my copy editor insists.
Source: www.grammarcheck.net
Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara
I am now doing the rehab exercises for my fractured ankle.
Having been through physical therapy five years ago when I sprained the same ankle, I was allowed to do the exercises at home. Therapy involves some stretches and writing the alphabet.
Writing the alphabet was the most challenging exercise because my left ankle is the one fractured. I am right-handed so figuring out how to “write” the alphabet with my left foot is difficult.
As I was trying to remember which way a “j” curves, I thought of the Chinese student living with us this year. If he sprains his ankle, will he have to “write” with his ankle in Chinese? 
Somehow a plain English “j” seems less complicated.
I’m never without a book. Sometimes it hides in my purse; sometimes in my tote. I like the idea that my books are flowers carried in my pocket.
I read a blog recently where certain elements of the blogger’s stories were listed with the question, Are you my reader? That got me to thinking about who reads romance.
According to Maya Rodale, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that romance readers are single women in possession of cats and in want of a man.”
I’m a long time romance reader and neither truth applies to me.
She adds, “Other “true” facts about the romance reader: They’re “nice people with bad taste in books”, uneducated, bored, stupid, “lack romance in their lives.” Or if we want to be really specific, they’re “middle aged women who are bored in their marriages and want to fantasize about hard, chiseled men.” Or maybe they’re “younger women who are using them as emotional porn.”
None of those characteristics apply to me either.
So who reads romance?
Romance Writers of America did a survey and created the graph below to identify romance novel readers. These demographics are a closer match to who I am as a romance reader.
If you’re a romance reader, do the stats fit you?
BTW, if you’re interested, you can read the rest of Ms. Rodale’s humorous post on romance reader myths and truths here.
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