I am SO excited to get to introduce my own readers to my dear and beloved friend of many years, Jeannine Ouellette, who has finally (!!!) launched her own blog so that I and everyone else can now read her drop-dead gorgeous essays on a regular basis. (Or, to be strictly accurate, she’s now writing regularly in the online space that’s been just sitting there, waiting for her for some time.)

I could write reams about all the great and tiny ways that Jeannie and I have seen our lives curl around one another in eerily similar ways over the years. However, we are linked together most directly by our shared experience as mothers who write.

While you’re visiting and reading her blog, be sure to check out the amazing writing & yoga retreats that Jeannie has co-created. For anyone looking to become a better writer, and a more powerful personal essayist in particular, Jeannine Ouellette is the mentor and guide who really, truly will get you there. I know this first hand because she has been my editor in years past, and the super smart guidance she gave me early in my own writing life had enormous influence on my work, and it still does today. (Plus, if you attend one of Jeannie’s writing retreats, you will get to hang out with my fun and clever pal in a totally fab setting while I do not, thus making me wildly jealous of you. You can even gloat some, and kind of lord it over me. )

So everyone, please meet my friend and fellow writermama, Jeannine Ouellette. If you enjoy discovering fantastic writers to read via their blogs, I promise that you will be glad to make her acquaintance.

I love Jeannie, and I love her writing. She’s a treasure.