My Species

The keynote speaker at the recent writers conference I attended was Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author or thrillers, horror novels and comic books. He has so many things going on like having one of his series being in development for a TV series and another for a movie. A good place to start with his books is Patient Zero.

Jonathan was a member of Pennwriters early in his career. Now that he is big time and living in California, it was really generous of him to return to our writers' group and lead workshops and give a dinner speech that left everyone laughing, applauding and truly inspired. Not only did he travel across the country, but he arranged for a copy of one of his books to be distributed to every attendee and then hung around to sign them. All weekend, he made himself available for questions and discussions. For three days he gave back to the society of writers.

After giving a brief personal history of his writing career, Jonathan explained why he enjoys the company of other writers so much. Writers are his people. His species. No matter how much our family and friends support our careers, there are things about being a writer that only other writers get. Like how when you're sitting at your desk staring blankly at the wall, you are working. When you're listening into the argument going on behind you at the restaurant, you're working. When you do all those weird Google searches, you're working. Sitting on the porch reading? That is working. Only members of your own species understand that. Thanks to Jonathan for being so generous.

Thinking about writing a short story? Maybe submit it to an anthology? Check out Alex J. Cavanaugh over at Anne R. Allen's blog and his post, Anthologies: How They Can Advance Your Writing Career.

Tomorrow is Flag Day here in the States and also my oldest son's birthday. He's a pretty patriotic guy so it fits. He doesn't care about his birthday and never has. He's excited about the upcoming football season so the quote today is one he lives by or rather coaches by.
"Winning isn't everything, but wanting to win is." Vince Lombardi

I'm still toiling away on my WIP and it's going so much slower than I expected. So this quote if for me.
"Luck is not chance, it's toil; fortune's expensive smile is earned." Emily Dickinson

Do you feel the species love with other writers? Are you thinking of being part of an anthology? Have you heard of Jonathan Maberry? How do you give back to your writing community?