Natasha Hoar | A year to be thankful for

To say this has been an eventful year may be a grand understatement. Between political, social and natural events, there’s a tremendous amount to feel distressed, and maybe even saddened over. With the final hours of 2012 dwindling away, it would be tempting to allow the weight of this year’s challenges to sit vulture like on our shoulders. But what if we took just a moment – maybe until the end of that cup of tea or coffee you’re enjoying – to look back and find things that happened this year that we’re thankful for?

Here, I’ll start us off:

·I’m thankful for everyone who bought my books, and particularly thankful for those readers who took the time to review them online. Nothing both humbles and motivates me more than to know someone’s out there rooting for my characters. (It’s also mildly terrifying, but I’m going to tuck that under the ‘motivating’ part of this point.)

·I’m thankful for all the hard work of my editor, and all the editorial staff, at Carina Press. It’s easy for a new writer to fall to pieces during the editorial process, but it’s so much easier to keep it together when you work with people as passionate about your story as you are.

·I’m thankful for jobs that didn’t quite ‘fit’ – they forced me to clarify my goals, and to find a better way to do things.

·I’m thankful for emergency rooms, and the ER staff who approach each moment with a quirky, often necessary sense of humor. (And of course, my writing doppelganger always appreciates the chance to see how people react under challenging circumstances. She’s a brilliant little detail hoarder some days.)

·I’m thankful for the members of online communities who shared their passions in open, friendly ways. It’s a treasure to know there are so many wonderful people out in the world, and that trolls (not Amanda Hocking’s trolls, but those folks who enjoy making other peoples’ lives a misery through relentless online bullying) are truly in the minority.

·And I may be the only one who feels this way, but I’m thankful we didn’t have a white Christmas in my little part of the world. (We have a corner lot AND a driveway wide enough to park an RV on, so I was not looking forward to spending all morning shovelling that lot! Though I suppose if I had done all that shovelling, I could have been thankful for the Christmas candy calorie burning exercise…)

I could go on, but I would love to hear what you’re thankful for!

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About the Author

Born in South Africa, Natasha moved to Canada in her 20s and settled just outside of Vancouver, British Columbia. This meant she was surrounded by an abundance of amazing natural beauty, interesting people from around the world to talk to and a fair bit of rain (which, oddly enough, she rather enjoys). She’s always up for a good adventure, especially if it involves ‘stumbling upon’ movie or TV shoots, hunting for G1 My Little Ponies at local thrift shops, meandering through book and toy stores, or looking into paranormal phenomena.

She can be found mostly on Twitter, Flickr, at her blog, on Facebook, and very occasionally on YouTube.

The Lost Souls series is available from Carina Press; Barnes & Noble; Amazon; Kobo; the Sony Reader Store and Audible.com.

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