A friend who worked as co-editor on three anthologies with a major publisher was asked by her husband during her work on the third collection when she would be finished working on her little books.

Passive-aggressive will get you every time. And a backhanded compliment is no compliment at all.

Luckily I haven’t had too many unpleasant experiences. Mine were along the lines of – The saddening discovery that your best friend really doesn’t give a crap about whether you write or not. And of course, the ‘advice’ that you cannot possibly hope to make any money and should therefor do something else.

I had even convinced myself for years that writing was impractical and I should focus on another career due to that last one.

Now here I am – a writer. I even have the business card to prove it. I’m not rich, and I’m still working on the next “Great Novel” but I must say this: If I can do it, so can you!

And a hundred thousand thank yous to my family who have always supported me no matter how impractical my life plan has been at times. I had absolutely no idea how rare that was.

And once, when I was short of funds and joked that ‘the wolf was at the door’, she gave me a look and said, “Well, you opened the door and invited the wolf in, didn’t you!”

She’s really supportive now that the novel is being released…one of my biggest cheerleaders. Hmmm…