268. Why MC

If you're reading this post the day it goes live, Happy Valentine's Day. The day designed to celebrate love seemed the perfect time to talk about one of the people I feel so grateful to have in my life that I think finding her was meant to be. Sometimes, connections between people are written in the stars, a concept touted in romance as fated mates. I'm going to tell a short version of how this person came into my life, where my connection with her has taken me, and a little of why I think destiny had a hand in bringing us together.

When my girls were little, I used to take them to the local independent bookstore, Oblong, which has a wonderful children's section presided over by a young (a decade-ish younger than I, so at that point, recently out of college) woman who seemed to have read EVERY children's book that existed. She had  valid, thoughtful recommendations to offer for each request I brought her. She never steered me wrong.

My girls grew up and I stopped frequenting the children's section there, but when my daughter's pre-kindergarten teacher retired, the bookseller took over that classroom. What a great boon to children who would grow up loving books as they should because she would find the perfect stories to ignite their interests.

Flash forward to 2019. The former bookseller,  now educator of tiny humans contacted me by Facebook Messenger because she'd heard through the grapevine that I was (1) interested in romance and (2) trying to write a novel in that genre. She asked, so gently I didn't know how serious she was, if I wanted to become her writing buddy. She said she hadn't written much yet but wanted an accountability partner to keep her on track.

You won't be surprised that I (1) thought I didn't need a writing buddy and (2) said yes anyway. Wowza, am I ever glad I did.

It turns out that my writing buddy had the same kinds of great suggestions for me as she did for my girls reading choices back in the day. She led me to the Fated Mates podcast just in time to hear the first annual Derek Craven day (February 4, it's worth checking out each year's special episodes). She's lent me dozens of great novels. She's talked/texted me through so many writing slumps.

In the romance fiction world, people talk about the main characters in books as MC1 and MC2. (There are usually two MCs, but some of the spicier books have three or more MCs.) Anyway, when I realized that the person I've been appreciating has the initials MC, I knew I had to craft a post with her as the main character. Plus, it's her birthday later this week, and I'm grateful she was born and brave enough to contact me after so many years and stick with me as we learn together how to craft novels. I hope that both of our writing journeys will end in HEAs (Happily Ever After is a fundamental fact of romance novels), but even if we don't get the big book deals, she's still one of the most important MCs in my life.

Who are the MCs in your life? Why are you grateful for them? Share some love in the comments.