Friday, July 27, 2012

I Just Blogged To Say I Thank You

I don't know if I say it enough. At least not to you.

Blogging is a strange beast. I talk about myself, my work, my family and friends, my cats, my complaints (and yes, I'm good at those), trying to make it interesting, if only to myself. Then I press the Publish button, and off my entry goes to be read by a handful of my friends and an unknown number of strangers.

In real life, I've met a handful of you strangers. I've exchanged emails with a few more. But mostly I know you from the comments you leave (and I'm sure there are many of you who haven't left comments, and that's fine too). Some of you use names that might actually be your name. Others use make believe names. And of course there are the Anonymouses who stay Anonymous and those who add real names or make believe names to their comments.

The blog entry that got the greatest number of comments was one I wrote a little over a year ago, asking if there should be a fourth moon book. There are 126 comments, and they continue to come in.

And so, with your encouragement, I wrote a fourth moon book. And then I tried a different approach to a fourth moon book. And then, finally, I wrote a fourth moon book and got it right, in my eyes and the eyes of my publisher.

I wrote about all those efforts and you stuck with me. You encouraged me. You sympathized and empathized. You were on my side. Or if you weren't, you kept your thoughts to yourself, which I also appreciate.

Since the end of December, I've kept a gratitude diary. Every Friday I write down five things I've been grateful for during the week. Some weeks I have a lot more than five things to be grateful about, so I shove a few together. Some weeks it's a struggle to come up with five things, but I think about it, and end up with five   real things.

During the week, I think sometimes about what I'll put in the diary. Last night I thought about it. I knew the first thing I'd list was my publisher accepting The Shade Of The Moon.

But then I thought I should list how much I appreciate your comments. And I decided while it would be fine to put that in a diary only I read, I should let you know as well.

So thank you. Thank each and every one of you. Thank you more than you can imagine.

Oh, and if you can think of three more things I should be grateful for this week, I'll be even more grateful!


14 comments:

Mr. Cavin said...

You know what? Thank you, Susan Beth Pfeffer. I mean, I really like the books, and I'm willing to pay for them. But I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed reading this blog over the last few years. I understand that you don't really think of it as work--heck, if I'm not wrong, you think of it as procrastination--but to me it's just as if I was reading for entertainment just like when I read the novels. And this is entertainment that you've provided me for free.

So I thought I'd take the opportunity to thank you for it now, while all the appreciation is still in the air.

Fear Death By Water said...

You're welcome. and also thanks for sticking with it. Have a good day. :)

Gillian said...

Yes, thank you!

Aside from your writing, you talk about your mother all the time, and I just want to say I appreciate that. My mother is now 74, and she's my best friend. I'm always happy when I read about your good relationship with your mom, and how long it has lasted. It gives me great comfort.

And give Scooter a scritchy from a friend; he looks soooo much like my Ivan (aka Ivan you Idiot after a character in a book)...

Lillian said...

no, thank YOU Susan. Your books are amazing, and I am so grateful that such good books have such a great author who writes fuuny blog posts, sends me book plates and audiobooks and is just an overall great person.
ps- Can't wait for the fourth book!!

Bonnie Jacobs said...

I suggest you should be thankful for Scooter, who wrote a poem for you in May. It involved your spleen, in case you've forgotten. I sometimes write about cats on Caturdays, otherwise called Saturdays by non-cat persons. And some Caturdays, my cat Kiki would post something herself. Kiki died seven weeks ago, but about a month before that, I shared Scooter's poem. I hope I remembered to share the link to my post with you, since it's about your cat, but if not, here it is for you. I hope you are appropriately grateful to have a poem-writing cat:

http://bonniesbooks.blogspot.com/2012/05/caturday-poem-by-scooter.html

Friendly Neighbourhood Bookseller said...

We enjoy reading and chatting with you, Susan. You're definitely one of the more approachable authors I've interacted with.

You could be grateful for the foreign language book? Or the pretty flowers...no, wait, that wasn't this week, was it. This is what happens when I try to catch up on missed posts.

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Hi Bonnie Jacobs and Friendly Neighbourhood Bookseller-

Bonnie Jacobs, I'm sorry about Kiki. I know how painful it is to lose a cat. And thank you for reminding me about Scooter's poem. I'd forgotten that gem of literature!

As for being an approachable author, FNB, not so much when the Olympics are on!

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Thank you Mr. Cavin and Fear Death By Water and Gillian and Lillian for thanking me for thanking you!

Lisa-Marie Jordan said...

Thank you, Susan, for writing such fabulous books! I'm looking forward to the fourth moon book!

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Thanks Lisa-Marie Jordan!

Caroline said...

I'm so excited that the book is getting published :) you are a wonderful author and you communicate so well with your fans! Thanks so much for posting the whole of the first chapter of your book on your blog. It was great! I am looking forward to reading the rest of it :) it's been great reading your blog over the years and seeing the editing processes of your books it's always good to see how much the book changes! Keep up with the good work :)

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Thanks Caroline.

I think it's going to be very enlightening for everyone when I blog about having to rewrites, and won't allow myself to complain!

Verity said...

Before reading stumbling upon this blog, I always just thought of you as one of my favourite authors. Now I consider you one of my favourite people. I don't know if that makes any sense but oh well. Your moon crash series are my favourite books and I have read them over 8 times, haha. I like them even more than the hunger games which is saying a lot!! Keep up the good work, thank you! Love from Australia xx

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Thank you Verity.

It's a lot of fun for me to realize my blog is being read all the way over in Australia!