Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. Not for big thematic reasons. For small personal ones - family and food, and the start of the Christmas season.

I don't love it for its history - I've always been aware of just how badly the Native Americans were treated just after our traditional Thanksgiving tales ended.

And it's not for its meaning - I'm such a pessimist at heart, I'd often fail to give thanks for the good stuff because I'd be dwelling on the bad.

This year has been a rollercoaster. So much bad, from financial woes, to medical concerns for friends and family, to almost every one of the job opportunities I mentioned in an earlier post dissipating in front of our eyes, to our manager throwing us under a bus after we'd stuck with her for years.

And yet...

This year I find myself feeling thankful. Maybe I'm old. I'm not so syrupy sweet that all the bad doesn't still resonate with me. But I feel like good things are coming. I feel grateful that all the bad of this year wasn't nearly as "the world is coming to an end" as it may have seemed in the moment. And mostly, I'm grateful that I feel good about life even after a year that seemed hell bent on kicking the snot out of me and out of Christina.

So, after all that, here's a list of things I'm thankful for:

1) Christina. She's the most consistent source of joy, humor, contentment, and love that any man could ask for.

2) The novel we're writing is done. Most of the credit for this falls on Christina, but I helped her plot it, and my notes made for the bulk of the last two rewrites. Plus, it's an idea we've both wanted to find an outlet for over the last ten years, so I feel as connected to it as she does. And thanks to Christina's efforts, I think it's really good. I'm hopeful we can find our way into the prose-writing world, and that hope is also something I'm thankful for.

3) My family. Lots of adjustments to be made with them moving from New York to Connecticut, and that hasn't been easy on any of us. But I'm thankful they've put up with all the years of me being a self-absorbed Hollywood type. I'm with Christina's family today (and with them I'm thankful we're all enjoying each other's company without any friction) but tomorrow we go to my parents' house to do a second Thanksgiving and to celebrate my niece's birthday.

4) The Rucka/Van Meter clan. Like an extra branch of the family, they have been there for us in ways no friend should ever be expected to be. We love them.

5) The guys at Oni Press. They keep publishing our stuff and making us feel like part of the Oni family. While I've kind of had my fill of pushing at the door of DC and trying to keep a foot wedged in there, I know that Oni wants to work with us, I know that Oni likes our stuff, and I know that our stories belong there. In the next two years, expect 2 new ongoing series (FRENEMY OF THE STATE, BAD MEDICINE), the revival of a dormant property (more on that when I can talk about it), a new OGN (PLAY BALL, about which I also can't talk about yet), and two new Amy Devlin mysteries. They are the home for some of our favorite ideas, and that's more than enough to be thankful for - and it doesn't even include the fact that they got the deal in place for FRENEMY's option.

6) The endless possibilities for the coming year. This year was, financially, a backbreaker. But so much good stuff is coming up. There are a ton of new books (see #5), each bringing with it the possibility of financial success beyond the limited pay of the comic world, but also each bringing with it the excitement that keeps all struggling writers from packing it all up. Then there are things like the option on FRENEMY, and the ongoing march towards PARADISE SPRINGS (our film script) going into production. And the novel. I'm thankful that when I look to the future, while I may not see massive financial success, I see stories I'm excited to tell, which have the possibility to build off the momentum we hoped we started to accumulate with FRENEMY.

7) AMAZING AGENT LUNA & DESTINY'S HAND. LUNA was always one of my favorites of our books, and we've started to think we have a shot of keeping the series alive. More info on that as we learn how likely it is. But I'm thankful that I don't have to say goodbye to Luna just yet, and if we're lucky, won't have to for a while. Conversely, I'm thankful to Jason DeAngelis and Seven Seas that we were able to get the entire story told on DESTINY'S HAND. I always wanted to write a pirate epic, and with the omnibus now in stores, containing the already released Volumes 1 & 2 and the brand new final volume, we now have a 500+ page pirate manga volume that tells one swashbucklin' tale from beginning to end.

8) Our apartment, and Pam. We had a bad experience a couple years ago, with a crazy landlord who was trying to drive us (and everyone else in the rent-controlled building) out. The hell of having your living situation up in the air and feeling hostile can really take a lot out of you. But we wound up finding our current place. Pam, one of the owners, has always made us feel like the building is as much our home as hers. And it's a spectacularly nice apartment.

9) Teaching. In years past, when the financial aspects of freelance life started to look grim, Christina and I would doubly despair, because we are, to our core, writers. We wouldn't know what else to do with our lives if we had to look for other work or to find a different career. But for the last few years, I've been teaching, and doing it makes me happy. I like to think I do it pretty well, and I've made a bunch of new friends by staying in touch with my students. That alone would be enough to be thankful for (and especially the new friends). But as I said, not knowing what else you can do beyond write can be scary if the writing money is not forthcoming. These days, I don't have that uncertainty. I'm starting to look for more regular teaching work. Even if the writing takes off and makes us rich, I think I still want to teach.

10) A community of friends in Los Angeles. There are times it feels like being so far from family has left us without a true support network. And every time we'd build a network of friends, someone would leave L.A. (which the Eagles assured us would never happen!). But we've still managed to build a network of family and friends that keep us sane and keep us (moderately) social.

11) I reconnected with an old friend this year, and hadn't realized how much I missed her. Shonda, I doubt you read this blog, but I'm thankful that I'm now back in touch with the one person who made grad school worthwhile for me.

Anyway, there are actually more things I could mention, but I'll stop here.

What are you thankful for?