May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the crotch of the person who screws up your day and may their arms be too short to scratch...

This saying reminds me of how Monica looks at life. She is a take-no-prisoners, no-holds-barred kind of person. Her mind is sharp, intuitive, and she possesses one of the most wicked talents in writing I have ever run across and she has the wicked wit to match. I met Monica online through the #wipfire hashtag and I promptly fell in love with the writing. Watch this one because she is a rising star, which as soon as she reaches the launchpad is going to take off like a rocket. She has a way of asking a question (especially when I'm unbalanced) and all of a sudden, perspective is gained, and I am able to continue on with the writing with greater clarity. She has amazing knowledge and I want to soak up as much from her as I can.

Linda on the other hand is one of the few online friends met outside of Twitter. She and I met through an independent book review I review for. She posted her book Along Came a Demon and requested a review, and I read, reviewed, and LOVED it, and a friendship was born. Linda and I support one another through all of the trials of putting our books out in the best shape possible. We have laughed, cried, and screamed together, cajoled one another through the rough patches, celebrated in the good times, and mourned in sorrow. (By the way, in the pic, I'm the pup not paying attention to what's going on with my tongue lolling out.) I have enjoyed watching Linda grow as a writer and was perhaps even more excited than she was when she was approached by an agent wanting to rep her Whisperings series. We are definitely in this thing called the writing game together.

So when the time came for me to plan vacation for 2010 and the original plan included a trip to Washington, I kept looking at the map and decided that Utah where Linda lives wasn't too far out of the way, I'd make sure I stopped by to meet her in person. Then, as my friendship with Monica grew, I knew fitting her in to the vacation would be a simple thing because she lives in the town where my dad grew up, and I would be visiting relatives in the area. We had a wonderful weekend hanging out together, talking about writing, wandering around soaking in inspiration, and actually doing some writing (Monica insisted). The memories will be cherished - and I thought my cheeks might break from laughing and smiling so much. After the weekend with Monica, I drove to visit Linda and loved wandering around the town on which she has based her fictional town for her paranormal mystery series. Of course, Linda may have panicked a bit when she almost got a house guest for a longer period of time than expected when I fell on her deck and twisted my ankle. Well, twisted is probably being nice... I ripped the ligaments to shreds. But I was able to ice and had some ace bandages with me to wrap the ankle with, so I moved on as planned.

I could go on and on (but I hear their groans about the length already). Both of these women mean more to me than words can say. They enrich my life, and I don't know how I would have survived the past year without them.