Happy birthday, IWSG!

Welcome to the first Wednesday of the month. You know what that means! It's time to let our insecurities hang out. Yep, it's the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog hop. If you're a writer at any stage of career, I highly recommend this blog hop as a way to connect with other writers for support, sympathy, ideas, and networking. If you're a reader, it's a great way to peek behind the curtain of a writing life.

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG. This month's co-hosts are:

• J Lenni Dorner https://jlennidorner.blogspot.com/
• Sonia Dogra https://soniadogra.com/
• Pat Garcia http://www.patgarciaandeverythingmustchange.com/
• Sarah - The Faux Fountain Pen http://thefauxfountainpen.blogspot.com/
• Meka James https://authormekajames.wordpress.com/

And the question-of-the-day: 

The IWSG celebrates 12 years today! When did you discover the IWSG, how do you connect, and how has it helped you?

As near as I can figure, I've been participating regularly in the IWSG blog hop since May, 2014, starting with this introductory post. That's the when the logo looked like the one you see above instead of the (in my opinion, much cooler) one we have now. 

So, that's nine years ago, which seems about right because that's about when I committed to taking my writing life seriously and making space for it, and I sought out writing communities and professional support as I worked to figure all of that out. (And how fun that in the comments on that post I see blogging-friends I still connect with through IWSG today!)

Now, how I heard about it? I don't remember! Like most things in my writing life, I bet I saw someone else participating and thought it sounded interesting and jumped on board. But who that was? What I saw? Where I saw it? Sorry, those are all details lost to the mists of time.

Looking back at that post, though, I want to go give my past self a little hug. 2014 turned out to be A HUGE year in my writing life, the year that the professional aspect started rolling. Just three months after that first post to the IWSG, I signed my first book contract for Going Through the Change. 

And the IWSG was here for me, cheering me on, encouraging me to continue when things got tough, inspiring me with their own journeys. They were there when I had to go through a painful revise-and-resubmit for the third book. They were there when that first publisher went defunct and I had to scramble to get my rights back. They were there when I was dealing with burnout and struggling to find the joy in my writing life. They were there when I signed with a new publisher and got a fresh start for my series. 

Each step of the way, I've found love and support among the writers in this group and I've been so glad I found y'all! So, fellow IWSGers, how did you find this group? And for other visitors, do you have a supportive group that feeds your personal journey? I'd love to hear what you have to say in the comments.