Thankfulness

It's Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for family, for friends, for the ability to write and to publish, and especially for readers. 

We forget very easily that writing is not a one-way street. It's communication, and the reader does half the job, using imagination and experience to connect with the words on the page. As writers, we have to be clear and dynamic, specific and evocative. Readers owe us nothing but a little attention.

As readers, we owe the writer a chance; we need to read and pay attention and see what we can make of the words the writer has put down for us. At its best, reading is like a good game of catch, the writer throwing fastballs, curves, looping lobs, and change-ups.

And one of the greatest rewards a reader can experience is catching the meaning of a subtly expressed idea or emotion.

It's like a good hard solid smack right in the sweet spot of the old mitt.