So I have just finished a big rewrite on my new manuscript. What a great feeling. And I’ve decided – no book-writing till 2016. Focus on other things. It dawned on me this morning that I’d like to do my own 12 Days of Christmas – but in this case, 12 authors whom I treasure for all sorts of reasons, not always just their sheer talent. Of course I then realized I’d left it rather late, because it’s only ten days to Christmas, but I’ll figure it out – I might have to do two authors on one day.
These are in no particular order. But on this First Day of Christmas (for the purposes of my blog, anyway) I am focusing on Arthur Slade. I stole this shot from the web. 
First of all, he’s handsome, right? (Yes, that is reverse sexism, but I stand by it). Second, he’s a great and prolific writer, crossing a lot of genres – something I admire and envy. Third, he is always at the forefront of new technology and experiments, and very generous with sharing what he finds out. He put some of his books for sale as e-books on Amazon when that was a new thing, and tracked for us all, on his blog, how it went. He published a wonderful graphic novel using crowdfunding, again when that was cutting edge. Now he has a newsletter, in which he shares tons of useful information on craft.
On top of it all, he’s just a fantastic human being. I met Art at my very first writers’ festival back in 2008 (Winnipeg’s fantastic Thin Air) and he was so kind to me, showing me the ropes. Here we are a few years later at the Vancouver Writers’ Fest, with Shannon Ozirny.
Beyond his terrific writing, he’s also been a mentor and a shining example of how to treat others (while still having a wicked sense of humor). Oh, he also had one of the first-ever homemade treadmill desks. So he’s fit, too.
Aww. Thanks! This brings tears to my eyes. Can it really be in 2008 that we met. Where did the time go. No, really, where did it go?
Well I really mean it, Art. Every word. You are an awesome human being!