So many times you hear about people who “made it” – they knew someone. The road to success is long and difficult, and I think just about everyone has help along the way.

Most of us don’t know the celebrities personally. We don’t know the people who brought them fame and/or fortune. What we have instead is friends and family who will help us in any way they can.

I’m not going to win an Oscar, most likely, so you won’t see them drag me off the stage trying to thank the people who helped me. I’m okay with that – I’m a writer and I don’t really do screenplays.

What I try to do, though I think I’d better keep better track next time, is write acknowledgments. There’s one in the front cover of my book. I realized I forgot someone recently, but it’s probably too late to add them right now. My old neighbors let me use their fax machine when I needed to figure out how to receive a copy of my book. (My husband, ever helpful, kept asking why it couldn’t be emailed.)

I moved, and I still miss my neighbors. I have a new neighbor who seems cool, but they made my old house a really nice place to live.