Posts Tagged Thanksgiving

A Writer’s Thanksgiving

I love the Thanksgiving season! It reminds me that I have so much to be thankful for. And it turns out, being grateful has its benefits.
In addition to promoting a positive attitude, research has shown that practicing gratitude for 15 minutes a day, five days a week (for at least 6 weeks) can positively affect your physical and mental health.
Expressing gratitude can also improve your sleep, mood, and immunity.
Writers often experience a boatload of rejection – query rejection, manuscript submission rejection, revision rejection. These experiences can easily produce a negative attitude toward writing, and life in general.
Writers have so much to be thankful for! For example,
  • books,
  • the ability to create,
  • critique partners,
  • honest feedback that leads to improvement,
  • time for revision,
  • quiet walks that spark ideas, and
  • frequent celebrations (nothing is too small. Ex. completing a paragraph or scene or meeting a daily word count goal).
We’d love to hear what you’re thankful for. Please leave a comment below, and let’s start practicing gratitude today!
Have a have a Grateful Thanksgiving!
Resources:

What Are You Grateful For?

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it. I love this time of year, and have a lot to be grateful for this Thanksgiving. My older daughter has been suffering from an eating disorder, and after living at Oliver-Pyatt (an amazing eating disorder facility in Miami) for the past six months…she’s home and way stronger than I’ve seen her in a long time!

People often spend so much time concentrating on food for the holidays. While it’s nice to enjoy special treats, I’m definitely going to celebrate being with both daughters and my husband. It’s such a gift to spend quality time together!

I originally had a different topic in mind for this post, but since it’s the day before Thanksgiving, I started thinking about how much books have meant to my daughters and me. I have so many wonderful memories of snuggling together, reading books from the time they were little. One book I’m extremely grateful for is Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing by Judy Blume. It was one of my favorite books as a child! I’ll never forget reading it to my girls. My younger daughter was in pre-school at the time, and both girls listened intently to every word and laughed at Fudge’s antics.

When my first born was a bit older, we read My Teacher is an Alien by Bruce Coville. She loved it so much that when I had to stop reading it during an appointment, she grabbed the book, sat down in the corner and said, “I’m sorry, Mom, but I just have to see what happens next.” What priceless words!

Now that my girls are older, we haven’t read together in way too long. I really miss it! I think I’ll see if they’re up to picking out an amazing middle grade novel to read together this weekend.

Besides being grateful for family, friends, good health, and awesome books–I’m also grateful for SCBWI (and the SCBWI Blueboard, which is an amazing message board for anyone interested in writing, illustrating, or involved in publishing or being an agent for children’s books). And I’m thankful for everyone at the Mixed-Up Files blog, and all of our wonderful readers. 

What are you thankful for this holiday season, and which middle grade novels helped create special memories for your family?

Mindy Alyse Weiss writes humorous middle grade novels with heart and quirky picture books. She’s constantly inspired by her two daughters, an adventurous Bullmasador adopted from The Humane Society, and an adorable Beagle/Pointer mix who was rescued from the Everglades. Visit Mindy’s TwitterFacebook, or blog to read more about her writing life, conference experiences, and writing tips.