April 22, 2023 | Shannon Winton

I'm really excited for Mother's Day this year. I've been a mom for a long time. *Cough mumble number* years ago, when I was first struggling to be my creative self while working full-time and raising a tiny human, I would have cried all the ugly tears if someone close to me had validated my struggle to write by getting me one-on-one time with a professional editor. All. The. Ugly. Tears.

Honestly, when we had the meeting to come up with our Mother's Day plans here at Tomeworks, I had to turn off the camera to shed a few. If you don't write, you probably cannot imagine the emotional investment a writer puts into their words or how much the imposter-syndrome gremlins like to visit and stab you with their tiny knives when you're struggling. Having a kid and trying to write, ooh boy, is that a struggle. Your favorite writer mom needs some validation and support. Just trust me. Even if she's tough as nails and doing it all without complaint, let her know you see her and appreciate what a badass she is.

Our Tomeworks editors love their moms, friggin love them. Moms are often our first reader, the person who sounds out the words with us before we know what they are, cuddles us with board books in the evening before bed, and tells us the secrets of the symbols surrounding the eye-catching images on the page. We probably don’t remember these early interactions with story, but they are foundational to our joy in reading. Here’s what some of our editors think of their awesome moms.

“My mom has always been a source of support and curiosity. When I was young, she read to me and with me, instilling a love of stories from my childhood. Now that I’m an adult, we still share that same love of good stories, even if we’ve moved beyond reading the exact same books. She’ll ask me what I thought of the latest episode of a great show, or the newest movie, but she also makes a point to ask about what I’m writing and reading, too. Love you, Mom. You always did the best you could, and it was far beyond enough.”

— Ian Everett

“I was a 2e kid (meaning I was gifted but also had a learning disability). When the school couldn’t figure me out, my mom stepped up and homeschooled me. Working full-time as a cardiac ICU nurse, raising two rambunctious toddlers, and then giving me one-on-one attention to make sure I had the tools I needed to learn, she didn’t get a minute for herself. I don’t know how she did it, but in third grade when Mom was my teacher, I went from being way below grade point to having a college reading level. Without her sacrifices, I don’t know who I would be, but I certainly wouldn’t be a writer, a reader, or an editor.”

— Shannon Winton

Moms are usually the ones who first validate our creativity, patiently (and sometimes impatiently) answering the whys and what-ifs we ask as children. “Why isn’t the grass purple?” “Why do we not feed the dog a brick of cheese?” “What if we had a dragon as pet? Could they have a brick of cheese?” They’re also the ones who foster our creativity by making us castles and spaceships out of old boxes, the ones to tie sheets around our shoulders and declare us superheroes, and the ones that enable us to access our first repositories of books and the immersive worlds hidden within:

“My mom was always reading to me when I was a kid. After I got older and could read on my own, she would regularly take me to the bookstore or the library and turn me loose to choose books on my own. I started gravitating toward sci-fi and fantasy really early on, but having that freedom that my mom gave me to choose my own books helped solidify my love of reading. On top of that, my mom was a journalist by trade, and was always encouraging me to write down stories and poems that I thought up.”

— Anna Hawkins

“It was my mother who kept our rural house just a smidgen away from being the same as that in the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, before I even knew what Narnia was. The wild woods, the secret old passages in the attic, the thick tomes set on rough hewn shelves, curiosity–encouraged by Mom–everywhere. So when I was curious at the age of eight and climbed up on the desk to grab at books I came away with my mother’s. Her favorites. I read The Hobbit, then I read Roots. Then I went reaching for more up on the shelf and I and my siblings were whisked away to the East Aurora library, where I prowled low shelves of high fantasy as the afternoon sun shone through the midcentury windows. With dust motes catching sunbeams and stacks of novels around me I was struck by indecision until us four kids were called to the checkout where the librarian punched stamps on cards for each of our books, and sometimes our hands too if she felt sassy. I could not have developed a sense of love for the written word without those trips, and I would not have needed them if I wasn’t on a desk reaching to a shelf for a romance novel before that, and I would not have done so in the first place if I did not have the unbridled curiosity my mother imparted to us, in that house in the woods with a lone iron street lamp standing sentinel, out of place.”

— Sean Morrissey Carroll

Moms are usually the first ones to show us we can make up our own stories, that we can create those immersive worlds all on our own, that there are whole other people with whole other lives living in each one of us, waiting for their story to be told:

“My mother is a weaver. A weaver of threads, of lives, and of words. As long as I can remember, my mother has been telling me stories. Hank the Cowdog, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, and characters of her own imagination colored all my waking moments. Under her guidance, I took to reading like a fish to water and soon was telling her stories of my own. My mother always listened with patience and encouragement. She still does.”

— Daphne Strasert

It's hard to put into words how amazing moms are, regardless of whether they’re your mom, your children’s mom, or someone you admire for instilling wonderment in future generations. It can be especially difficult to know how to appreciate a writer mom, but I promise, she can use some personal attention and help getting mundane tasks off her plate so she can focus on visiting her inner universe and cultivating her stories until they’re ready to share with this world.

Here are some general things you can do to show your appreciation to a writer mom. Some of these are personal, so unless you’re close or live with her, please don’t go into her house and touch her private stuff:

Offer to watch the kids so she can go to the coffee shop and write for a few hours. Please make sure you keep the house in at least the same condition she left it in.
Fold those clothes that have been sitting in the basket for three weeks so it's not part of her mental load.
Also, please restock the bathroom. You don't know what hell feels like until there's a screaming three-year-old trying to press their entire body under the bathroom door at the same time you realize all the toilet paper is gone.
Make the bed. Sounds weird, but do it. Slipping into a neatly made bed after an exhausting day is glorious. This goes for all moms, writers or not.

And yes, every mom deserves a little something for their passions. These are the special things you do for your writer mom this Mother’s Day:

Get her some writer swag. It's corny AF, but I got a "talk to me before coffee, and I will kill you in the book I'm writing" mug from a friend, and I found joy in that baby every day until a small child accidentally knocked it off the counter. Writer-themed cups, laptop stickers, and Christmas ornaments even, they all legitimize her passion.
Buy her a gift card for her favorite writing spot if she's a coffee shop/teahouse writer. It's a lot easier for her to validate going out and getting a $7 mocha during a writing session if she's not worried about receipts.
There are so many writing workshops online and in person. Buy her a ticket to one and plan to cover childcare during the event so she can focus while she attends.
Buy her a beautiful notebook. A leatherbound journal or one with a texture you know she likes will make writing feel decadent and indulgent even if she's time-pressed.
If she manages to write at home, a cozy blanket for her book nook will never be turned down.
She wants a fancy pen even if she doesn’t know it yet. That means one that’s beautiful, light-weight, and writes well. Do not give her carpal tunnel with a ten-pound writing instrument.

If you really want to go above and beyond, get her a verbal consult or a query letter review from Tomeworks. Let us know her name and email address in the more-info section at the bottom of our contact form, and we'll do the rest. We're running discounts all month long to make you and your favorite writer mom happy.

P.S. You can also sign up for one of our Patreon tiers on her behalf so she can attend our AMAs, have one-on-one time with a professional editor, and get more extensive editing services throughout the year.