Insecure Writer's Support Group.

 It's the first Wednesday of the month, so it's time for the Insecure Writer's Support Group! 

The awesome co-hosts for the February 2 posting of the IWSG are Joylene Nowell Butler, Jacqui Murray, Sandra Cox, and Lee Lowery!

This month's question is: 

Is there someone who supported or influenced you that perhaps isn't around anymore? Anyone you miss?

There is someone who had a huge influence on my writing who isn't around anymore: Lexa Cain.  I met Lexa (this was just one of her pennames) through Writing.com not long after I first joined the site.  We were in a number of the same groups on the site and just kind of gravitated toward each other even though we wrote wildly different stuff.  Lexa was a fantastic horror writer and had a real eye for the grotesque. 

She was smart and often hilarious.  She had a wicked way with words and always called me out if I was being lazy or if my characters did anything she felt was not right for them.  She was a meticulous plotter and always knew exactly what was coming next in her stories.  And it showed! Every chapter finished on a cliff hanger, forcing you to read on.

She was also the best critique partner I ever had.  She could be brutal, but my books are so much better for it.  I don't feel like anything I've written since she dropped off the scene has been as good, and nobody else has pushed me to be as daring or as prolific as she did.  

I never met Lexa in person - she lived in Egypt and I live in New Zealand - but she genuinely was my best friend for several years.  Barely a day went by when we weren't in contact.  We cheered each other on as we struggled toward publication, commiserated over rejections and celebrated every small success along the way.  We talked about everything, but only online.  We never even did a Skype call!  The only time I ever heard her voice was when she sent me some demos of songs she'd recorded (she used to be an entertainer in resorts in Egypt).

I don't know what happened to Lexa.  I know she fell on some hard times after her husband died suddenly.  I know she had some serious health issues of her own.  I can only guess that she succumbed to them but I have no way to contact anyone in her family so I can't be sure.  I just know that she disappeared from my online life and has never reappeared.  No one has ever replied on any of her email addresses and I never found an obituary notice in her real name that sounded like the woman I knew.

I miss Lexa, both as a critique partner and as a friend. Every writer deserves a critique partner like Lexa - someone who can be both your fiercest champion and your harshest critic.  And everyone deserves a friend who can buck you up whenever life feels hopeless.

Do you have someone you miss from your writing life?