Once upon a time, about 13 years ago, I was an aspiring children’s book writer. On my journey through the world of writing and publishing, I discovered some of the best friends a person could have. It all began on a forum.

The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators: SCBWI forum to be exact.

In the huge, international world of writers, by some random quirk of fate, six of us found each other, and we’ve been close friends and critique partners ever since. Linda Stanek lives in Ohio, Jen Funk Weber lives in Alaska, Linda Covella (we call her Elsie to differentiate her from the other Linda) lives in California, Dale Ibitz lives in Connecticut, Mary Beth Schewitz jumps between Chicago and Florida, and I jump between northern and western NY.

A group does make one stronger. In writing and real life. This week, I have a really special treat. Three of the six of us were able to wend our ways down to Mary Beth’s house on Marco Island in Florida, along with our spouses. We got here the day before yesterday, and I’m blown away by the beauty of this place. There are times when we are out and about, but we women always feel the call of the keyboard and find ourselves sneaking off for a bit of writing.

I hope you don’t mind humoring me by not getting upset by my impending influx of posts this week 🙂 There are a lot of thoughts I want to get out, and lots of sights I want to share with my loved ones.

This is post is part of my leisurely week of writing while on vacation.