So, apparently this is Author Appreciation Week. I’m always torn on these kinds of things because A) I appreciate & love so many authors that I find it impossible to single out just a couple and B) I appreciate them ALL THE TIME. But maybe that’s just me.

I’ve been “appreciated” myself a couple of times (thank you SO MUCH Sara @ Novel Novice and Ari at Teens Actually Read?) and that totally gave me the warm fuzzies, so I was thinking, okay, maybe I *should* break down and show some love.

I do this in the full knowledge that there is NO WAY in the world I could list everyone I appreciate. I apologize in advance to all of you that I left off.

For their wonderful words of encouragement to a newbie writer (who wouldn’t quite gather up the courage to really sit down and write for a few years after these events) at various Florida Suncoast Writer’s Conferences, I am especially appreciative of Laurie Halse Anderson, David Lubar, Harry Harrison, Jeff Vandermeer and Richard Jennings.

And I will be forever in the debt of the writers that shaped me growing up (sadly, so many are gone now): Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Douglas Adams, Piers Anthony, Anne McCaffrey, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Louisa May Alcott, P.L. Travers, T. H. White, Joe Haldeman, Frederic Brown, Stephen King, C. J. Cherryh, Morgan Llewellyn, and Jane Austen.

And much thanks to authors I personally “know” (often, only through email) who have been encouraging and helpful over the years and done everything from virtual hand holding to critiquing to…well, whatever. These include Myra McEntire, Kristin Tubb, Terry Miller Shannon (who introduced me to my editor), Saundra Mitchell, Sarah Mlynowski, Dan Ehrenhaft, Tiffany Trent, Brent Hartinger and everyone on the MidSouth SCBWI listserve.

Oh man, I already know I’m missing dozens…no, hundreds…no, probably thousands of authors that I appreciate. Really, okay…you know what? I appreciate ALL of YOU. Everyone who takes the time to write and share the stuff in your head that’s just gotta come out. I love you guys.