Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, I have so much to be thankful for this year, so you know what that means...yes! Another top 10 list! Yeah, I know you're probably getting sick of these, but I'm sort of obsessed, so you're just going to have to live with it. OK, fine, how about a compromise....a top 5 list? Done. Drum roll please...

The Top 5 Things I'm Thankful For This Year:

5. Trashy TV. Honestly, without trashy TV I'd have nothing to blog about and I'm not really sure what I'd do at night when the fam goes to sleep and I'm left with a few hours of downtime. I can't honestly say that Gossip Girl has made me a better person, but it sure does make Mondays a little more fun. They just released some study that claims depressed people watch more TV than happy people. Whatever. I'm happy, I love TV. Deal with it.

4. Good books. I will admit that I've significantly slowed down as a reader since we began work on The North Shore, but prior to my foray into authordom I read about a book a week. I love to read and even when I have next to no free time, I'm always reading something. From trashy romance to literary fiction, I love it all. So thank you to all the authors out there who continue to astound me with their genius. Books like Love Walked In, Beach Music and pretty much anything by Stephen King are so good they make me want to cry. I honestly don't even aspire to ever be as good as these authors, but I'm sure as hell going to continue to work at being the best I can be. Thank you for the inspiration.

3. Our book. Laura has compared writing our book to having a baby, we honestly can't remember what we did before we started seriously writing. I have loved every single part of this process. The writing, the editing, the critiquing, the submitting, the WAITING, OK fine, maybe I don't love the waiting...but I will say that this is the first time I've ever truly attempted to fulfill my dream of being a published writer and I can't help but relish every second. Even the waiting. I wake up every morning and can't wait to see what the day will bring; requests, rejections, a new idea for our next book? All of it is new and all of it is exciting. And I love it. I'm so proud of us, Laura! However this turns out, we've written an amazing book, and even better, we're going to write more!!

2. Our friends and family. When we finished our book, we were terrified of letting anyone read it, but our friends and family have been so incredibly supportive. My best friend Tara and her mom read the whole thing from cover to cover about 30 times giving us tons of helpful edits along the way. Our brother-in-law, who prefers books by Ayn Rand and Stephen King, read and re-read the book (and about 50 different beginnings) and provided us with honest, critical and encouraging feedback every step of the way. Our loyal blog (and book) readers Casie and Sarah who faithfully read our random thoughts on a day-to-day basis. Our mom, who thinks we're really funny, pretty much because she's forced to by the laws of nature. Our sister Stacey who is about 8 million times more talented than we are and managed to whip up a website for us out of thin air. And, of course, our youngest reader Kelsey, who devoured the book in less than 24 hours. An Austenite and the only actual young adult who has read our book, every rejection we get, we remind ourselves of her rave review and keep going. Thank you.

1. My kids and husband. I can't imagine life without Ken, Jack and Mia. They drive me crazy, make me laugh, and bring out the best and sometimes the worst in me. I love them more than anything and thank God for them every single day. They are without question the best things that ever happened to me. Did I mention they also drive me totally insane?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!