The Diamond Girls are a Writer’s Best Friends

As Valentine’s week draws to a close, I realize I’ve seen about 30 commercials for diamond jewelry in the past few weeks. We can probably all sing or say the famous jingles or taglines from them. No, I didn’t receive any diamonds this year on Valentine’s Day. But I am blessed with two wonderful writing buddies, Nicole and Caitlin. Together, we make up “The Diamond Girls.” And we’ve been on quite a journey together.

The Diamond Girls met a few years ago at an OCW summer writing conference. Caitlin and I (and another fellow OCW member) were roommates in a small cabin. She and I and Nicole became instant friends. One evening at dinner, an older lady had us stay after the meal for a moment, saying she had something for us. She dug in her purse, and pulled out three large plastic craft diamonds. Then she said that God told her to give them to us, because we were like diamonds. He was shaping us into something pure and beautiful. Later in the week, she walked by, and said, “There’s my Diamond Girls!” And so we were.

That was the hottest week I’ve experienced this side of Kentucky and China. I think that bound us together (those who sweat together, write together) even more. We shared our hopes and dreams together, of writing, life, and love.

Since that conference, the Diamond Girls have endeavored to get together whenever we could. We weren’t critique partners; we each had our own critique groups for that (mine was the wonderful West Salem Writer’s Group- I love you ladies!) We just shared our lives together. The girls prayed with me when my marriage crumbled. We prayed for each other’s job situations. At first, we lived within 45 minutes of each other in the north Willamette Valley. But then Caitlin moved to Texas for a great job opportunity. We still managed to get together, though, to encourage each other in our writing as well as our lives. When I was in China last fall, struggling with the moral dilemma of staying or coming home, the Diamond Girls got on Skype together and encouraged me.

Now the Diamond Girls are far apart, but still together in our hearts. Nicole has an agent and is a social media coordinator for the University of Western States. Caitlin is a columnist and a social media manager in Texas. I work for a social services office in small town in southern Oregon, where I get to hear people’s stories, and I have evenings and weekends free to write. And I’m finally almost done with my first draft of a novel (the other Diamond Girls are way ahead of me! Read about their books on their blogs).

Watch for Nicole and Caitlin’s novels to be published. They’re fantastic writers! Nicole writes WWII-era historical fiction, and Caitlin writes contemporary fiction. The Diamond Girls decided we would each write a blog about how we met and how far we’ve come since then, and then link to each others’ blogs. I’ll include these here, but they’re also in my blogroll.
http://www.nicolemillerbooks.com/2012/02/23/of-clear-plastic-and-chance-encounters/
http://www.caitlinmuir.com/the-story-of-a-girl-and-her-diamonds/

In addition to the Diamond Girls, I have some other close writing friends as well. I met Haylie while we worked together at a middle school. She lives in southern California now, but she’s my best accountability partner for writing. She’s written three novels so far, and her stories are adventurous and fun.

The Diamond Girls

My aforementioned writer’s group in Salem also has brilliantly talented writers: Tracy & Debby, who invited me to it, Diana, and Bev (and for a while Haylie). We had a wide range of fiction writing to critique: historical of three different eras, sci-fi, and fantasy. All of them have either been published, received awards, or had agents/editors interested in their writing. What a group for me to learn from! And they weren’t just a critique group- we’ve encouraged each other and prayed through the toughest of times. Besides all these, I also have many other talented friends in OCW that have been published. I’ve been inspired by the writings of Jill Williamson, Hillary Manton Lodge, Leslie Gould, and so many others. Many of their blog links can be found in my blogroll. I want to say a special thanks to Christina Tarabochia-Berry (author of Familiar Stranger) and Mary Hake (President of OCW) for their encouragement during my divorce.

So this Valentine’s week, I celebrate the Diamond Girls and the rest of my amazing writer friends. Because they, along with my other wonderful writer friends, are a writing girl’s best friends on the journey to being an author.