Has It Really Been A Year?

by Sophie

Our Anniversary!

I think this is one of those weeks when my fellow Pens are going to be gnashing their sharp pointy teeth 'cause I get to go first - a week when much of what we have to say on the topic is shared among us, and it's tough to be original. Here's a top five list of the things I think we all agree on when it comes to being Pens together:

1. Blogger has a mind of its own.
From the moment I composed my first tentative post and then thought it disappeared in Preview mode (in a hotel room a year ago with Lisa and Martha distracting me) (oh, okay, i might have been distracting them) to the other day when I wrote the longest comment ever and Blogger ate it without so much as a burp, I sometimes can't tell if it is friend or foe. But we have the best beast-tamer ever, our lovely web designer Maddee, who always makes it do what we want.

2. We're all good at something. (And nobody's good at everything.)
There have been days when I've despaired of ever being as edgy as Martha. As artistic as Gigi. As deep as Adrienne. I've coveted Lisa's wit, LGC's prose, Rachael's sweetness, and Julie's powers of observation...and despaired of ever being able to write my way out of a brown paper bag. And then the words jump out of my brain and onto the keyboard and I remember it's okay just to be me.

3. Between us, it's more like three degrees of separation than six to every interesting and lovely person in publishing.
For years I've relied on Lisa and LGC to be my walkin' talkin' Who's Who in publishing. Now I have even more resources. I was going through my BEA schedule before my trip last week and noticed a particular up-and-coming author I wanted to meet. I emailed and sure enough, in seconds on of the Pens said that of course she'd introduce us, that they regularly get mani-pedis together and invited me to the their craaaaaazy labor day Bachanalia at the Hamptons timeshare (oops, okay, I might have made that last part up.) (plus I don't know how to spell Baccannalia.)

4. A comfort zone isn't nearly as hard to put in the rear-view mirror when you have seven people always available to cheer you on.
Publishing ain't for the faint of heart. It beats you up like monster waves crashing against rocky shores, and it can be wayyy too tempting to stand back in the safety of the sand instead of jumping in. Besides, you know what's one thousand times more f'ing scary than failure? Success. Some days I want to chew strips of flesh from my arms and pull out my own hair (just like the Beaters in the book I'm working on) - instead I occasionally check in with a quick "uh, should I try?" and the answer is always a deafening HELL YEAH.

5. The Publishing industry is a much nicer place to be when you are there with friends.