National Be Kind to Editors and Writers Month!

By Trina Boice

Years ago I worked in Washington DC and spent a day at a congressional reception, consuming every kind of ice cream known to mankind to celebrate National Ice Cream Day. While I thought it was a silly holiday, I was too busy shoving Drumsticks and ice cream sandwiches in my mouth to complain or request that our legislative efforts be spent on more noble causes. Hey, it was free ice cream after all.

Apparently, almost anyone can request that a national holiday be created to honor just about anything. Did you know that September is National Be Kind to Editors and Writers Month? Now there's a holiday worth honoring!

Be sure to finish reading this blog post before you race out to the store to purchase an outrageously expensive gift for me. Here is a very helpful list of of ten ways you can be kind to the editors and writers in your life. If YOU are the writer in your life, then you can simply print this list and set it on the kitchen counter or bedside table where your loved ones may conveniently happen upon it.

1. Sharpen all the pencils in the house. Do not sharpen the pens.

2. Stay off the computer. A writer might have an epiphany just as you are winning your game of Solitaire.

3. Do not interrupt your loved one while they are working. Haven't you ever heard of the "zone"?

4. Do not let your toddler use the computer paper as a doodle pad. What if I have an award-winning novel at my fingertips? There will not be one sheet of paper to print it on.

5. If your writer/editor/loved one is Blonde, take the initiative to clean the white-out off of the computer screen. She'll thank you later.

6. Set out lots of chocolate and late-night treats by the computer. Everyone knows that writers always wait until the last minute to finish a project. They will be up until 3 a.m. trying to decide if they should use the word "lie" or "lay" or "laid".

7. Offer to baby-sit for the writer/editor in your life. They still might not get any work done, but the kids will be out of their hair for awhile and that's always a gift.

8. Help your writer by answering that giant pile of fan mail. If there is no fan mail, write some.

9. Be kind to your editor by taking a few extra minutes to run that doggone spell-check before you send your manuscript.

10. Buy my books. (wink)