Caregiving and Gratitude

Dearest Bookworms,

Thank you so much, again, for joining me here. An email list is a precious thing for any author: their direct line to readers, a safe space to share and appreciate and be grateful for the writing life that readers make possible.

Tomorrow I’m meeting up with my writing pal via Zoom for the first time in two weeks. The past little while has been taken up with job-hunting, as I endeavor to add another income so I can make amends for the felicities of my working life and save a little money for retirement. (Though will I ever retire? For sickness, perhaps; for the inevitable; I do like to be working, to be useful.)

My time has also been taken up with caregiving. Anyone living with chronic pain understands the deepest intricacies of pain, and so is capable of offering focused care and comfort to loved ones who also live with chronic pain. I take joy in this, too. The subtleties of caregiving inspire in me new subtleties of love, and I notice and remember these for future stories. For example, I find devotion a fascinating impulse and want to write more about it. To experience devotion is to undergo a transformation of sorts — but I don’t yet know how I would describe that transformation.

This week I want to introduce you all to Jolanta, who read Crossroads of Desire and privately sent me a wonderful, insightful critique of that title that simply delighted me. I love insightful editorial comments, and I intend to employ Jolanta as my editor. Can you imagine how happy this makes me! By sheer chance to have found an editor whose voice, style, and insight excite and motivate me…

So, thank you, Jolanta, and thank you, too — every one of you. Thank you so much for being part of this journey with Quin and Leon. When I can’t get to writing, I think of you; when am exhausted and fearful that I might have run out of energy to write altogether, I think of you; when I write again — I think of you. You are so important.

With love,

AR x