Today in the 30 Day Writing Challenge, I was going to post a poem, but I got the tweet below and decided to write about something else: validation.

As a writer, you hope someone or anyone reads what you write and if if they read it, you hope they like it and might want to read more of what you write.

When Amy tweeted the above, I was completely blown away. Yes, she is a friend, but here she is associating one of her favorite bands with something I had written and that was the biggest compliment for me as a writer and music lover.

I finished “Barfly” in 2010. I wrote it in 25 days and finished it about one month after my mom passed away. That is 3 years ago and she associates that novel with music even after all this time.

Blown away.

Three years.

Blown away.

For the first time today, I actually felt like a writer.

The 40+ rejection letters for a previous project didn’t make me feel like a writer. The hand full of positive rejection letters didn’t make me feel like a writer. The completion of novels that I have written, the poems written through tears, heartache, depression, and such didn’t make me feel like writer.

One simple tweet from a friend did.

It was more than I could ask for.

It validated me. It validated my words on paper. It validated my passion. It validated the one thing in this fucked up world that has never let me down.

I am writer. I have an audience and I am grateful.

I cannot thank those enough that stop by here and read what I write. I see the view counts of people reading posts, but I sometimes wonder if that is really real or just my imagination.

You guys are real and you don’t think I suck too much! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.