Meet the Team Tuesday: Nancy

I know she's going to be somewhat embarrassed (and not altogether unpleased) that I included her here, but considering that my mom is the one who taught me how to read and write in the first place, I thought it was important to feature her here in my Tuesday Team member posts. :) And, coincidentally enough... today's post falls on her birthday. (I really didn't realize until I finished writing and got to the scheduling part of this post that it would post on her birthday, but I think it's cool).

At a young age, she instilled a love of the written word in me, both by reading out loud to me and by teaching me how to read for myself, as well as by praying that her children would love reading. Unfortunately for her, she made the mistake of telling me that she had prayed for this, and I definitely used it against her when I was a teenager and she was frustrated that all I wanted to do was read, or that I was staying up too late reading... I distinctly remember saying on more than one occasion, "You prayed for this, remember?"

However, despite having to raise me through my more trying years, she has always believed in me and encouraged me to do my best. Nothing less than my best was good enough, and I'm so thankful she and my dad never let me settle for mediocrity.

I know that the genre I write is not her favorite to read, but she reads them anyway, and tells me she loves them. She gets excited about my books when they are "finished" and in "real book" (i.e. bound) format. Her enthusiasm for my writing, even when it's not the sort of thing she would voluntarily pick up and read if I hadn't written it, means the world to me, and speaks her love in volumes.