Here's to writing friends out in the blogosphere --Kerry

There's really nothing quite as nice to a writer as asking her writer friends to proof a piece due for submission in less than twenty-four hours, on a Sunday to boot, and having them respond with feedback and help. This behavior merits a "true writer friend" title, and I bequeath it on Christy and Jennie, who performed the aforementioned good deed.

We writer types spend a lot of time alone hunched over the computer shooing away dogs, kids and phone calls like flies as they alight anywhere near us. We are not generally consistently this ornery, rather it is in the guidelines to the craft of writing that we have to perform in solitude because as my mother would say,"no one else can do it for you." So we are alone alot and rarely does anyone but a writer friend really understand your need to converse with other writer friends who feel your angst over a pending assignment and can help you allieve it.

As a twenty-something fledgling reporter, I thought I knew it all and writing groups were for middle-aged mommies. Gulp, I have reached that pinnacle but hey, it's not so bad here, and I get why we as writers need each other, because Lord knows asking my husband to edit something when he's trying to watch football is just plain crazy and really why chance it?

Autumn Deficit Disorder -- Kelly

It's that time of year when I long for a fall that just won't come. When the usually ubiquitous squirrels go missing, probably to Vermont or some autumn haven, because nothing in the atmosphere suggests they should bother burying acorns. When the desire to pluck a perfectly ripe apple from a tree is defeated by green pecans.

But this morning brought gentle rain and a hint of coolness. Such minuscule harbingers of fall always improve my mood and inspire new ideas.

Along these lines, here are some random plans/resolutions for the upcoming season.

1. Eschew restaurants for food I cook myself.

2. Go to my daughter's soccer practices and games with glee.

3. Revive my blogging spirit.

4. Advocate calmly for health care reform.

5. Advocate calmly, period.

6. Inspired by Karen Maezen Miller, do the laundry.

7. Attack a pile of paper a day.

8. Spend time outdoors, damn the mosquitoes.

9. Touch base once each week with an old friend.

10. Renew.