Cecilia and I have followed two authors closely for the past couple of months. These authors have created the Emotion Thesaurus, a site used by many writers as a source of phrases that helps other authors construct richer sentences in their books. It's a fabulous resource to new and experienced authors alike. The reason we were following them was that they decided to compile their site into a book and we were both hoping to get a copy as soon as it was released.

Indeed, we bought the book last week and they are (two copies since we are in opposite ends of the continent) on their way to our hands as I type this (gotta check the items' tracking for the 100th time). Although we were able to purchase the book last week, its official release date is today and to celebrate it, the authors, Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi, are hosting a Random Act of Kindness Blitz.

In their own words:

"Kindness is POWERFUL. Even the smallest gesture can fuel a person and keep them going. All over the blogosphere today, you'll see Random Acts of Kindness toward Writers. These are by people who want to share their appreciation for those who have helped or supported them at some point along the Writing Path."

In the spirit of joining the RAOKB, we can't simply thank one single person. We have too many to thank for getting us where we are right now. We thank each and every reader who took the time to post a rating or give us a review or feedback, be it in private or publicly. We thank our families for putting up with our caveman-like behavior, recluse geeks, for months in a row while going through deep editing of our manuscripts. We thank our friends for the words of support and encouragement and for not letting us doubt ourselves for longer than it takes them to smack us up the head or kick our asses in chat (both virtually). Most of all, we thank our beta readers for the amazing direction and critique that has made a huge difference in how we craft and shape our stories.

I am sure the full list is much longer and I am more than sure some names will be missing from the condensed version but here's the short list in no specific order:

Candy Chapman, Harriet Vallero, Micquleta Williams, Sarah Davis, Heather Von Ohlen, Hope Sloper, Karen Lorio Piper, Sandra Zapp, Lori Freeman, Jennifer Murray Thompson, Maria Mercedes Prieto, Shannon Adamson, Cathy McCarron, Dianne Steverson Vickers, Victoria Iankova, Alan Langford, Misty Evans, Melissa Berlese, Anders and Nina Karlsson.

Thank you for all you have given us. We hope to make you all proud.

Love,

Chris & Cecilia