We hit 6000 today! Time to show what we can do together -- again. Please take part in our Holiday Book Buying Drive this Friday, December 18th. Create your own Holiday Book Buying Guide and be sure to tag it "HOLIDAY" (read on for mine), then Tweet, blog, email and Facebook it from the mountaintops! Help us help every She Writer by including at least one book by a She Writer on your list. Buy a book by a fellow She Writer on Friday as a gift for someone else, or for yourself, and ask everyone you know to do the same. It's that time of the year; the best possible time to call attention to the books and authors you love, who often deserve a lot more attention than they get.

As for my own Holiday Book Buying Guide...I was hesitant to create any sort of list myself. My job here, as I see it, is to support each and member of our community in her efforts, and by creating a list I will inevitably leave many of you out. Then it occurred to me that it is high-time for me to create a list of my own, with a particular theme: a list compiled in honor and appreciation of the women who have gone above and beyond in helping She Writes prosper and grow over these last six months. Each of these women has been crucial in contributing her time, effort and, most precious of all, her words to She Writes.

Not only that, it's a list of authors, and books, that will knock your socks off.

So without further ado, I will begin in the beginning. The first few months...

Katha Pollitt, The Mind-Body Problem. Nancy K. Miller, one of the founding members of She Writes, interviewed Katha for our first-ever installment of Five Questions For...

Deborah Siegel, Sisterhood, Interrupted. Deborah was my first-ever partner and co-visionary for She Writes, and before she got laid up on bedrest wrote the excellent weekly feature "Tricks of the Trade Thursdays."

Nancy K. Miller, Bequest and Betrayal: Memoirs of a Parent's Death. Nancy and I founded the New York Salon of Women Writers together, carrying on the work of my mentor and one of the great loves of my life, Diane Middlebrook.

Sarah Milstein, The Twitter Book. Great appreciation is due to our inaugural webinar-giver, Sarah Milstein, whose webinar Twitter for Writers (on holiday special now for $15, I can't help saying) was solely responsible for getting me over my major Twitter-aversion-hump.

Marilyn Yalom, The American Resting Place, and Veronica Chater, Waiting for the Apocalypse: A Memoir of Faith & Family. Marilyn interviewed Veronica for our second "Five Questions," and perhaps more important, founded the Middlebrook Salon of Women Writers in San Francisco with the late, great Diane.


Lisa Carver, Drugs Are Nice. Lisa generously agreed to be interviewed by Erin Hosier, another founding member of She Writes who has been instrumental to our success, for her column "Cover Girl."


Miriam Peskowitz, The Double-Daring Book For Girls. Miriam wrote our first-ever "What She's Reading Now" column and there's never been a second! Anyone want to revive it?

Linda Lowen recommended The Gate To Women's Country in her "My Favorite Book You've Never Heard Of" post for She Writes. She also wrote an amazing piece about us for About.com.


Elaine Showalter, A Jury of Her Peers: Celebrating American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx, and Miranda Seymour, Thrumpton Hall. Elaine (now the interviewer for two of our Five Questions installments, and another early member I am so grateful for) interviewed the British novelist Miranda Seymour for She Writes.

Christina Baker Kline, Bird In Hand. Our first-ever post for "It's Her Pub Date, Congratulate Her," another feature I'd like to revive on a more regular basis!

Pamela Redmond Satran, How Not To Act Old. I loved Pam's post about being the only woman on the Amazon Humor Top Ten -- unsurprisingly, it's hilarious.

Hope Edelman, The Possibility of Everything. It's hard to say enough about what Hope has given to us here. She is the reason many of you heard about She Writes in the first place. She pioneered our Countdown to Publication feature. She talked about "Writing About the Unbelievable" for the first NY Salon of Women Writers we held after the launch of She Writes. (See the video of that evening here!)

Amy Sohn, Prospect Park West. Amy appeared for our first She Writes live chat with the Mother Writer! group founded by E. Victoria Flynn.

Michelle Maisto, The Gastronomy of Marriage. When Michelle's book came out in September of this year, she shared her experience of the first month of publication with us on She Writes.


Alix Kates Shulman, To Love What Is. Alix was one of the first people I ever talked to about She Writes (over dinner at my place with Nancy K. Miller), and her beautiful book was featured on our main page when it was released in paperback this year.

To come tomorrow -- more highlights, and thanks, from October, November and December on She Writes!