Thank you, Tiaras.

I recently returned from SCBWI Orange County Agent’s Day where one of the agents who shall remain nameless said it was “creepy” when writers blog only occasionally.

Just before that speech started, the woman behind me and I struck up a conversation about our writing. She’s mainly a blogger, a weekly blogger, and informed me that she had to arrange her flight schedule around her blog entry which she put out every Monday for—her cat. At that point, she whipped a Popsicle stick with a cat’s photo pasted to it out of her purse and told me her cat had over 4,000 followers that got very cranky if the feline didn’t blog first thing Monday morning.

You decide which one’s creepier.

The topic on my once-in-awhile blogging mind is critique groups.

Writers are like only children. They work alone. They create worlds which they can control. They interact with others when they have to, but mainly they’re happy in their writing caves.

But as an only child myself, I know that friends can replace siblings you don’t have. And as a writer, I know that critique partners can bring perspective and inspiration that is so vital to the writing process. A little company to the cave, if you will.

And we always hear, “Get in a critique group.” But it’s not that easy. You need to find a good fit. You need to trust each other and to feel assured your darlings won’t be abused by your new clan. It helps if the writers are at similar writing levels, but short of an entry exam, how do you figure that out exactly? How do you find your critique home?

This is where the synchronicity that envelops writing comes in. It’s as if the writing Gods shine down upon you and give you just what you need for the project you are working on right then. It’s pretty magic how it works. And for that, Tiaras, I am grateful.