%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |  is paved with good intentions... |
|
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Hi, I'm Elle. I'm based in Auckland, New Zealand. I'm the mother of two young adults, the wife of an entrepreneurial gamer and the Queen of Unfinished Projects. This blog will contain poems, short stories, possibly photos and book reviews if you're lucky, and my thoughts on a variety of topics. Hope you enjoy it. |
Celebrate 19 years of Writing.Com by writing a thank you letter to someone on WDC or a thank you letter to the website itself. Then tell us what Birthday-related fun you are most excited for. ~ "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  I've written such letters a few times, but I'm delighted to do it again. We need to be more proactive about telling people how much we appreciate them. So awesome prompt, Emily  , thank you!I'm not going to re-read my previous editions of such letters. I'm just going to write. And yeah, there'll be some overlap, of course, but there'll be new additions too. And that's how this site works. It's constantly evolving. Honestly, that's one of the things I love most about it. Some old friends leave, which is sad, but new people come along and the dynamics change. And some old friends return, and sometimes you make new friends with someone who has been here forever but you just hadn't crossed paths before... The site is always evolving and updating, which is awesome, but one thing I particularly love about WDC is that The StoryMaster  not only listens to the community here, but also participates in the community, so that our voices are heard. Yeah, there's an official suggestion box, but I've also seen people mention something on the newsfeed and nekminnit, SM has made it happen. And then every year, there's a whole raft of improvements and updates, and every year there are new emoticons that people have mentioned here or there that they'd like... I've never before known a site where the owners are so responsive to the community.And it's not just about granting wishes, as awesome as that is. With any community you end up with small (or sometimes large!) dramas, and I have always been impressed with how SM has handled them. He doesn't tolerate the drama, but he's also not some no-name head honcho ruling with an iron fist. "These are the rules, and that's that!" It doesn't work that way here. Because SM is part of the community, he knows people, he understands the nuances of situations, and he reviews things on a case-by-case basis. I really appreciate that. I'm sure it makes his job harder in some ways, but it makes for a better community. I was going to say that Gaby  was my oldest friend on this site (back when she was the yellow witch!) but actually, one of the first people I 'favourited' was Emily . I wonder where we were crossing paths back then, Em? That was when you were living in Hawaii. Your poem, Patches of Red, was one of the first poems from WDC that I copied into my personal blog because I enjoyed it so much, but I suspect we actually bonded over blogging rather than poetry. If I'm going to divert from chronological order here (and I am!), I don't borrow poems or stories for my personal blog very often, but every now and then I come across something special and I want to remember (in years to come) how much I enjoyed that particular piece at the time. So these are the items I have 'borrowed' over the years: Echoes and Determination by ianthlynn "The Weathered Pages" by Angels in my Ear  "Worthless Angel" by Angels in my Ear The Corn Patch by bumfuzzled  Shades of Green by gardengirl Mt Ruapehu Belches by alfcollier "Invalid Item" by Charlie ~ "Lists" by Fivesixer  "Invalid Item" by felicityluna "63 is the new 40. Right?" by Fyn  "Follow Me to the Horizon" by Emily "Used Goods" by Choconut "Acceptance- A Novel Idea" by Fyn "Invalid Item" by Brian K Compton "Bacton Wood at Sunset" by Eric Wharton  "Along The Way..." by 🌖 HuntersMoon  "A Stray Fort or Two" by Beholden  "The 14th Fuck" by Fivesixer Reminiscent by Cinn  Grunge Lullaby by Fivesixer Back Here on Earth by Charlie ~ "Mistakes" by Emily "18 Ways of Looking at Books" by Emily "Make breath" by Fyn "Poems Are Everywhere!" by Fyn That's an average of less than three per year making their way into my personal blog. The first one in that list was from the old Stories.com days, and is a story. I think all the rest are poems except for Fyn's poetry newsletters which are kind of like poems. I did copy one of Charlie ~ 's blog posts once, because I thought it was so brilliant. It was after the Christchurch mosque shootings, about people making tragedies all about themselves. It was quite pertinent to the moment.Right, so. I obviously favourited Emily very early on. Then came Gaby, of course. She was someone I felt comfortable with, and one of the first to tell me it was okay for me to swear.  Those who know me now probably can't believe there was really a time when I didn't swear on WDC, but it's true. Only in emails to Gaby for such a long time.Then Gaby changed WDC history forever by posting in her notebook: 'Is there a WdCA? How do you deal with Writing.com addiction? Someone form a group or a forum, please so I can deal with this like a normal person!' There was the whole "WDC Addicts Anonymous" gang then. I can't list them all but some of the memorable names from that group were blue jellybaby , Airplane1285 , Princess Zelda  , OOT™ , A E Willcox  , LostGhost: Seeking & Learning , Jellyfish - HAPPY 25th WDC!! , SirSchemingSerpent , Marci Missing Everyone , ANN Counselor, Lesbian & Happy , Lynda Miller  and Fran 🌈🧜♀️  . Did you know, Emily was the very first person to win 'Member of the Week' at Addicted? That was on the 10th March 2013. So long ago...Looking back at the member list for that group, there are so many people on it that I call friends now, but I don't remember them from that time. Like Hannah ♫♥♫ and Shaye , Angus  and 🐕GeminiGem🎁  ... Those are names that are important, and people that I consider friends, but I don't associate them with Addicted. That group was so much fun for quite a long time. Yeah, it did end up being hard work keeping up with the Gift Shop reviews, but we had some really fun times. Back then, the site was slower, without so much happening all the time, so we were literally creating challenges and activities to keep ourselves entertained. In the very early days, we were rewarded just for sending emails to each other, that's how desperate we were for communication! Reviewing was a huge part of my WDC life then, and as well as the Gift Shop reviews, I was also reviewing for Gaby's PENCIL group and for "WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group" , which eyestar~* coerced me into.  I could never have imagined that I would one day be a Power Captain. Crazy!  I've met some awesome people through Power. In particular, eyestar~* and Nixie 🦊  who are both wonderful people.Then I kind of moved more into poetry. I was kind of drawn in by Marci Missing Everyone , LostGhost: Seeking & Learning and Fi , but I felt so inadequate next to those three, and ended up taking classes from PDG. That's where I really got to know Hannah ♫♥♫ who took me under her wing. Amalie Cantor - We Got This! taught me a lot about poetry, and then I got involved with Mandy who taught me more. And then (after we were both made mods), I became friends with Cinn and somehow ended up learning shitloads about poetry from her, Charlie ~ and Fivesixer . Posting our poems and commenting on each others, and sometimes rewriting them in the comments and basically these back-and-forth public 'reviews' that dissected the poems sometimes line by line... It was so valuable to me, and I learned so much.I'm sure I knew Charlie and Norb well before that though, as part of the whole blogging thing. Charlie, Norb, Witchy Woman  , Wordsmitty ✍️  , skeason , Alexi  , Kit  , Sally and others. ANN Counselor, Lesbian & Happy was there through all the blogging stuff too, of course. Joey's Ready for the Fall  , Sparky , brothernature, Shaye , Andy~hating university ... I think that's where 🌑 Darleen - QoD , Warped Sanity , Choconut and ~Minja~  came in too. Like I said, sometimes I forget how we became friends in the first place! And blogging also led me to Jayne  , Kåre เลียม Enga  and charitykountz in more recent times. Blogging is such an awesome way to meet people and make new friends. And holy fuck, we've had some fun times. I miss Beth, but I'm grateful to Jeff is Gru in #2343485  for taking up the reins of Soundtrackers. Such an awesome activity. Every Christmas I think of Jeff when I listen to the Carol of the Bells now. Did you know I had a dream once about Wordsmitty ✍️ ? 'But basically, Smitty and I were drunk, and laughing hysterically at some ludicrous sign that I think wasn't meant to be funny. Don't ask me how I knew it was Smitty in my dream, I just knew it was. I think there were other people around (was Mum hosting a dinner party for the Writing.com Blog Mob? That sounds right, in a wrong way) but no one else was quite as drunk or laughing quite as uproariously as Smitty and I were. I don't think my dream started off with us drunk and laughing, but we progressed there in the normal way of things - the more we drank, the sillier and louder we got.' And one about Lina Black-So Far Behind!!! and a whole passel of tiny puppies and kittens that got loose.  Oh, I forgot to mention Lina in my list of bloggers! Blogging also led me to Rhonda because we both got caught up in the blogs of a troll who went by various names including Kevin, Hunter and other random gay Canadian names. Not that the names are gay or Canadian, you understand, but his personas were. I say 'his' because he always used the persona of a gay male from Canada, but for all I know he was a 56 year old woman from Eketahuna.  Gaby and I got caught up in his web in his first incarnation (well, the first that I was aware of, although from memory it wasn't actually his first time here on WDC) and then the second time around (for me), I was joined by Rhonda and LostGhost: Seeking & Learning . Fuck, it was hard to believe it was one guy. He (or she or they or whatever) had some serious skills to be able write blog entries and emails as multiple personas and make them seem like different people. It was unbelievable. But fuck he screwed us over good. He played on the community aspect of WDC, making friends and then telling us that terrible things had happened to him so we'd feel sorry for him. I actually gave him my offsite email address at one point. I wanted to kick myself for being so gullible, but the fact is, he played the game exceptionally well. I was far from the only one sucked in. But yeah, that whole experience brought Rhonda and I much closer and we remain good friends to this day. Oh shit, that reminds me, I owe her an email!There are some other people that I need to mention, but it's hard to know where to fit them in. I still claim that I suck at writing stories, but despite that, I've written some stories that I'm really proud of, and even self-published a children's fantasy novel for the children in my family. It's something that I'm so delighted to have achieved, and it couldn't have happened without certain people. Brandiwyn🎶 - Velma #2343485  for pushing me to give it a go and believing that I could do it. Osirantinous  for inspiring me and encouraging me to step outside my comfort zone. Well, maybe not my comfort zone per se, but other people's comfort zones. Jeannie🌺  for her wonderfully encouraging reviews that inspired me to pick up the story again after it had lain dormant for some time and finish it. I would never have written that book without those three people in particular, but so many others as well. Os has had more influence on my short stories than that novel, but it's all part and parcel of the story writing thing.Angels in my Ear was a huge inspiration for me to focus on my family history stuff, and even though she hasn't been around for a while, I still think of her when I'm working on my family history projects. I don't have her gift for fictionalising the historical stories, but she had a passion and that inspired me and got me enthusiastic. I really appreciate all the time she put into "Roots & Wings Group" , because it meant that I kept working on my own projects. I miss her.I somehow became a Rising Stars sponsor, and did pretty much the shittest job ever of sponsoring someone. Poor Lostwordsmith . I knew even before I became her sponsor that she would be a success on this site, although I don't remember now where we first connected. Blogging maybe? Or maybe it was the poetry side of things. I forget. She's awesome though. That was a ridiculous year though, because I was struggling big time with my job and so I pretty much abandoned her.  Of course, she succeeded anyway, as I knew she would. And we can't overlook "The Quills" of course, which has led me to interact with so many people, and has allowed me to read so many wonderful stories and poems. Through Quills I got to know Kit , Jayne , Satuawany 🦄🏳️🌈Sapph , Fivesixer , Cinn , 👼intuey  , Andy~hating university , Shaye , Matt Bird MSci (Hons) AMRSC , Osirantinous and Schnujo's next semester starts  much better than I would have otherwise. There will be people and activities I haven't mentioned, of course. I ran several contests and groups of my own that I haven't mentioned, not least of which is "The Snail Mail Group" where I became good friends with Elfin Dragon-finally published , THANKFUL SONALI Party Hopping!  and others. It's impossible to name everyone, but I've tried to. Well, without listing literally everyone in every single group I've owned or belonged to, you know? If I've missed mentioning you, it's purely an oversight. Slap me upside the head in the comments.  But seriously, all the people mentioned in this entry have been an influence on me, and are people I'm pleased to call my friend. I appreciate and thank each of you. THANK YOU! ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I forgot to write what I was looking forward to participating in as part of the birthday celebrations.  Here's my to do list!  "Welcome To My Reality Forum" "What Have You Learned On Writing.Com?" "The Random Poetry Contest" "Fabulous Fantasy Contest "  "Writing.Com 2000-2019 and going strong!" "Barrel of Monkeys" "First Choice" "ANGEL-WITCH Bingo! Sept. 1-7"  "Invalid Item" "A Story-Poem Contest!!!" "All About Birthdays Free for all!" "The Taboo Words Contest ~ On Hiatus" "Invalid Item" "Invalid Item" "Invalid Item" "Note: Merit badge sale:
For 40,000 gift points each
..." "Note: ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Image..." "The Great WDC Lucky Bag Giftaway!-CLOSED" "Note: Do you like to collect exclusive merit badges? ..." "The 4 Controversies Contest" I might have to buy some gps. Shh, don't tell Steve!  |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
