I've mentioned on the blog before the role my mother has played in the development of any success or achievement I've had as a teacher. I think it's also important to acknowledge the difference she made in my development as a writer. (Of course it goes without saying that many of these things could also be said about my father, but since today's post is for Mother's Day, he'll have to take a temporary back seat.) Some examples of what I mean:
*She raised my sisters and me in a house filled with books. She and my father had collected dozens, if not hundreds, of paperbacks. Each garage sale she drove past was an opportunity to add more to the shelves. If there was something I really wanted in a school book order, she would buy it. She drove us to the local library nearly every week of every summer of my childhood. This left enough of an impression on me that the very first scene in the very first book-length manuscript I wrote was about my characters being driven to the library by their mother in the summertime.
*She gave me the first copy of "The Writer's Market" that I ever saw, or even knew existed. She got it from a friend of hers who wrote. It was beaten up and a year or two out of date, but it gave me my first look at the business end of writing, which nudged my goals up to an exciting and terrifying new level.
*She bought me a typewriter for my high school graduation (this was back in the Analog Times). She said it was for the papers I'd be assigned in college, but she also made a point of mentioning how I could use it for my writing as well.
*She asked me once to write a short story for her, something she and her colleagues would be able to use at school to teach their 2nd graders something to do with reading or writing. It was the first thing I wrote for an actual audience.
*As writing became more important to me, she was the first person to take "I'm writing" as a legitimate reason instead of an excuse for when I didn't have time to do something else.
*Long before my agent Carrie and I began tossing around our #WWSKD hashtag, she was the first person to compare my earliest and creepy short stories to Stephen King. It wasn't because I was trying to write scary things like he did (because of course back then I was very obviously trying to emulate his work), but because she thought my written voice was like his. Which always meant more to me.
*When I was trying to write and thinking about submitting stories or anything related to making writing something more serious for me, she would offer suggestions about what I could try or who I could talk to for advice, or whatever she could think of that might help. Regardless of how jackass stubborn I was about being sure I knew better and could figure it out on my own, she never stopped making suggestions.
*WHEN the day comes (I'm trying to force myself around hedging this with an "IF") that I sell a manuscript and my book gets placed on the release schedule of some lucky publishing house, the order of people finding out that amazing news will be (1) Carrie, who will share the news with (2) me, who will then immediately tell (3) my mother (and father, of course, but again -- Mother's Day post) before anyone else around me hears anything.
*She has read nearly every word I've written, or at least far more of them than anyone else has. She doesn't always remember all the details of each draft of each manuscript since so many things have been written and rewritten more times than you'd believe, but this doesn't bother her. She just sees it as a chance to read it all over again.
*She never treated writing as something I couldn't do. She acknowledged what an uphill battle it would be to have the chance to do it in any professional capacity, but was always encouraging and supportive. Even when I felt like a complete pretender, like someone who didn't even want to talk out loud about writing since I was sure everyone else around me would politely indulge my quirky little hobby and then roll their eyes about it when I wasn't around, she always took it, and me, seriously. Sometimes even more seriously than I did.
So thanks for all that, Mom. And Happy Mother's Day.
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