Thank you, Scattered Authors! by Sheena Wilkinson

I'm a weirdo; all writers are to some extent. I can't expect non-writer friends to understand the weirdness -- I've given up trying. 

So thank God for the Scattered Authors! This is more than just a blog. It's a community. Every month when I log on to make my contribution, and glance over the recent or scheduled posts, the authors' names jump out with the familiarity of the roll call of my class at school forty years ago.  Some I know fairly well in real life, mostly from the annual retreat at Charney Manor, which I've been lucky enough to attend for the last seven years. Some I know from posting in the Scattered Authors group on Facebook. Some I have met at author events over the years. Many I know only from their insightful, warm, funny or learned posts on here. But none feel like strangers, even if we haven't met.

I don't know, dear reader, if you are a Scattered Author or just a fan of the blog. But I do know this: that at the end of a year when we have been more scattered than usual, when this author, for the first time ever, has not crossed the Irish Sea, I have been more than ever thankful for this writing community. An appreciative comment on a post; the sharing of a writerly joke on a tough day; the offer to critique a manuscript (and then showing me EXACTLY what was wrong with it); the little gift to thank me for an introduction to an editor; the phone call that made me feel like I wasn't the strangest person in the world...

Sometimes I don't know what to write on the 13th of every month. But on this last month of an extraordinary year, it was easy. Thank you, Scattered Authors. Let's hope we are together again soon, but in the meantime...