Happy Thanksgiving

With the days getting shorter and even here in SoCal, cooler, it is almost time for Thanksgiving Day. this pic is of our table last year, before we all sat down. We don't all get together every year and there will be six of us on the actual day, but next weekend we'll have a lot more for a barbecue up in the mountains.

There's still a lot to do to get ready. Pies and cranberry sauce. I always make my great-grandmother's homemade bread. Then all the dishes that make it Thanksgiving whether there are six or thirty of us. Rutabegas (I think it's the Irish in us) and potatoes and stuffing and turkey and gravy and stuffed celery and two kinds of olives. Three kinds of cranberry... And we have a ham.

I know how fortunate we are to have so many good things to eat and so many people to love. I'm grateful to have my mom after a couple of scary illnesses. My stepdad who always is there to help us no matter what. My brothers and sisters in law, nieces and nephews. My friends and neighbors--I still live in the neighborhood I grew up in during the Dark Ages about six hundred years ago ;). Or sometimes it just seems that long!

But also a new family I never dreamed I'd be lucky enough to have. As a little girl growing up in the house right next door, I wished to be an author. I have a few of my single page early attempts. And when I finally did get published, I was elated. I'm very grateful to be an author and an editor and a publisher.

I am more grateful for the people in this book world. For my fellow authors who help each other at every turn and who still provide my reader side with stories and worlds that keep me up into the night. For all the others who work in our industry, the editors who make my books readable, the cover artists who make them eye catching.

And of course the readers. At this thankful time of the year, I'd like to thank all of you who make it possible for me to have the best job I can imagine. For your kind reviews and all the time you share my books on social media or tell your friends about them. For your happy faces and sweet greetings at book signings and for the fun we have at those events just hanging out.

Thank all of you so much!  I hope this is your best Thanksgiving ever. I'll be thinking of all of you when we hold hands around the table tomorrow night and eat a --hopefully--delicious dinner. For now, I'd better start cooking or we'll be having grilled cheese.

This pic of a couple of my relatives last year plus our photo bombing Banshee always makes me smile!  If you'll tell me in the comments below what makes you smile about the holiday, I'd love to hear it!
Hugs and Happy Thanksgiving! Kate