What Do Authors Talk About When Texting One Another?

I have a small circle of writers/authors I keep in touch with. Two corresponds with me via email and one I chat with fairly frequently via facebook messaging.

What do we talk about? This morning it was weather. It was raining to beat the band here and breezy as the dregs of Hurricane Matthew brushed against the northeast coast. We're inland so just had slow steady rain, with an occasional downpour. Northern VT had clouds but no rain, and was cool. We also talked a little politics, something neither one of us cares too much for but we do share a deep concern about the decline of integrity and decency in this country. This was interrupted by John coming home and my needing to help carry in groceries so we kicked our soapboxes aside to get back to family stuff.

This afternoon it was cooking. I can cook but seldom get a chance to as my husband has cooked for us since we got married. I do the baking. My author friend is not much of a cook. He'd sent me an autobiographical book the other day. I started reading it this afternoon. He wants my opinion when I'm through reading it. I'll send him this year's Halloween story in return. (My brother read it tonight and it spooked him! Ha! Good! Big sisters love to creep out little brothers!)

Often we send encouraging messages to one another because there is no one better suited to talking a writer through pre-event jitters than another author. I'm fortunate to have a terrific support group in the literary realm. (My husband lugged boxes of books for me once to an event and hasn't volunteered since. My daughter has her own things to do. And all my regular friends have busy lives with their families and aren't around when I need them.) So, it's my little circle of author friends I have come to rely on most to shore me up when confidence erodes.

We also talk about what we're currently working on, and future projects we'd like to tackle.

And sometimes it's stuff like my cat being sick, a black bear in the neighborhood, a fox trotting across the back yard, a black squirrel sitting in the thorny (and by thorns I mean three inch spikes!) hawthorn tree eating berries...the things we see in our day to day lives that might provide inspiration for a future scene in a story.

Whatever we discuss it's a nice break from the ordinary. And to me, it doesn't matter what we talk about because it's just great to talk to someone who understands what it's like to write when one's family members don't really have a clue.