The Month of Thanks – October 8

Continuing on in my Month of Thanks, here is my letter for October 8th.

To Dr. Stephen Granade,

Honestly, I still giggle at calling you “doctor”, because, to me, you’re just Stephen.

You are the person I can’t wait to see when I go to Balticon and stay up until sunrise talking through creative crises with. I listen and give advice when you are lost and I can see what amazing directions you’ve forgotten you were headed in. You talk me down from over-extending myself when there are so many projects I want to do and not enough time to do them. You look at me in that tone of voice and remind me of things I’ve said to you in the past that I’ve forgotten, when I should most be listening to myself.

You are also insanely intelligent and crazy entertaining. Your wit leaves me in tears from laughing so hard, even when your more cerebral jokes completely flummox me. When you talk science, your passion overflows and no one can resist the giddy excitement you bring to the conversation. Allow me to illustrate…

What became of this photo in days following its posting, also speaks volumes to your amazing sense of humor and the kind of people you surround yourself with. That I am counted amongst those who do things like this…

And this…

And the hilarious subtlety of this…

That really means more to me than you know. You can tell the measure of another person by the company they keep, and you, my friend, are immeasurable. The amount of support and encouragement you give not only to me, but everyone around you, makes me wonder how any one person can be so selfless.

And then you get started on my books and what a wonderful thing you think they are. Your admiration for what I’m trying to do with them always humbles me. This is because when someone so unquestionably brilliant is impressed by something I’ve done, I can’t help but feel like I might have pulled off the hoax of the century. I can’t do what you do, I can merely elude to these things in fiction and hope I don’t look like a total fraud. It is because of people like you that I am driven to get it right, because your esteem and respect means more to me than I can adequately express. It is you, and others like you, that drive me to be a better writer, so that I don’t let you down.

These are the things that are important to me. The opinions of those closest to me will always count more than sales or starred reviews.

Thank you for your friendship and allowing me into your amazing circle of friends.

(I was going to find some really geeky equation that would equal infinity to express my gratitude as a mathematical function, but, alas, my Google-fu ain’t that strong and I nearly died of an aneurysm trying to decipher things I’ve only ever seen in nightmares before. So, you get this…)

With gratitude amounts approaching positive infinity,

Starla Huchton

You can find tiny snippets of Dr. Granade’s awesome on Disasterpiece Theatre, DragonCon’s DCTV, and What The Cast podcast.