R2K

Good morning, friends!

Wow!

First of all, I just wanted to say thank you all so very much for all the support these past 18 months! Since the release of my first poem on this site "Wasting Away" on 23 February 2023, you lovely people have read my work over two thousand times!

It is simply incredible to me that so many of you have read my work and in so short a time! I cannot even begin to express how much I appreciate you all! Getting to read your responses, critiques, praises, and thoughts on my work has been the highest honour these past months.

Certainly, each of you understands just how incredible it feels to have your work be appreciated. My family has always been wonderfully supportive of my writing endeavours, and my friends cheer me on for every Top Story I've been fortunate enough to earn, but it is this community that has come to mean the absolute most to me on my writing journey.

Getting to read and respond to your comments, being able to engage with you not only on my work but also on the work of the amazing creators I've found. Not only am I going to explore some of my favourite stories in this bit of navel gazing, but I'm also going to shout out some of the best people in the world that I was lucky enough to meet on here.

Not that I can forget the people who support me out here in the real world, y'know, that place coffee and whiskey exist. So, I'm going to talk about them as well, if you'll permit me, before I discuss my own stories.

Here on Vocal, I have to extend my most heartfelt and sincere thanks and appreciation to a trio of amazing women. Sometimes I like to think of them as the three fates, selecting my thread of creative life and helping it bloom. Yes, I'm mixing metaphors, and I'm not apologizing.

Donna Fox, sometimes known to me as Harold because I'm very clever, has been a true friend since meeting her. She is the kindest, most supportive, and most genuine person I've met in a very long time. Able to convey character and theme so resonantly, Donna is not a bibliography to miss.

A fellow Canadian and extremely skilled and funny person, Donna has made my time here on Vocal so unbelievably rewarding. Through her comments, questions, edits, and support, I've managed to grow into the type of writer who is comfortable in releasing I'm not certain about. Just for the joy of learning from the opinions of people like Donna. An irreplaceable friend, thank you for being you, Donna!

Speaking of opinions, I can't express my appreciation for Dharrsheena Raja Segarran, who you might recognize as the woman with raven hair from my "Hear ye! Hear ye!" articles, enough. Fervently eager for every new release, generous with praise, critique, and editing suggestions, Dharr is a massive blessing to any aspiring creator.

Superbly skilled, Dharr's own work has always been a pleasure to read. Her ability to evoke emotion, draw the reader into the mind of her characters is unparalleled. Thank you for being a part of my journey, Dharr!

My journey has also exposed me to the excellent Mackenzie Davis. An incredible artist, able to convey the surreal and alien in such a digestible way, she is a skill to certainly not be missed. Her words of affirmation, especially on my limited attempts at poetry, are invaluable to me.

Mackenzie has made my time here on Vocal incredibly rewarding, not only as a learning experience, but also as a social one. A reliable reader, concerned friend, and damned interested person, thank you for joining me on this educational mission here, Mackenzie :)

Education in storytelling is a significant reason that I am here on this website at all. For those of you who don't know, during the course of 2020 and 2021, I wrote four novels. I'm quite proud of the word count, even if the skill displayed in those works meant that they were unlikely to ever see shelves.

From that experiment in the craft of writing, I decided, after seeing an ad for a Vocal challenge on Instagram, to join Vocal and try my hand at short fiction for a change. What an amazing decision that wound up being for me, because I've found some amazing people to learn from since that jump.

L.C. Schäfer, with her incredible ability to create such vivid and enthralling worlds, characters, and plots has been instrumental in that learning process. Especially with her ongoing personal challenge to write a flash-fiction story every day for the year of 2024. A challenge I should mention she has not yet missed a day of.

Liam Storm has been a valuable source of learning on setting discription. His ability to make me feel like I'm in the world, tasting the sea spray or smelling perfumed air alongside his characters is all but unmatched.

Poppy, a tremendous skill in verse has been a massive source of inspiration to me in my writing journey! Her trugly excellent poetry, regular mini challenges, and words of encouragement on my own fledging works has been invaulable!

As for people in the 3-D world, I must extend my eternal gratitude to my dad, who reads and edits for me almost all of my stories. Dad has supported my dream of writing for longer than I fully knew that I was dreaming it. He motivates and encourages me at every step, so thank you dad!

My mom is likewise supportive. Though I think she wishes that I would write happier stories from time to time. Always ready to listen when I have to rant about the difficulties of my works in progress, mom never misses a chance to tell me how proud she is of all the work I've done.

To my friends made in Korea, you all have my love for the kindest and support you've shown for my writing journey. Always there to celebrate my achievements or grieve with me over falling short of yet another official challenge, you are all amazing and I am incredibly fortunate to call you friends! I can't wait until the next chance we have to travel together.

I can't forget my in-person friends in Ottawa either. You have been there with me from the beginning, ready to listen to my writerly complains even though few of you can relate to those struggles. Eager to read my work when I share it, and always ready to share their extremely valued insights and opinions. You are all irreplaceable to me, and I'm so happy to be one of you.

To my friends further away, thank you for loving me despite the distance. Thank you for always being there for me, in celebration or in defeat. Your cheerleading and support are felt despite the oceans and mountains separating us. I eagerly look forward to seeing you again, in sun or in snow, wherever the winds may blow.

As I said earlier, my first story published here on Vocal was Wasting Away, a haiku on the concept of time, if I remember the challenge rightly. I've never considered myself any great shakes at poetry, though some of my friends might quarrel with that opinion. But since being on Vocal, I have published an astounding 20 poems out of 120 total submissions!

The same as is often the case with my fiction, those poems have tended towards the sad and melancholic. Again, I dare say my family would prefer I write of happy things, but the words come that may. And I maintain my lowish opinion of my poetic prowess because I have legitimately no idea what I'm doing. Can't talk about meter or verse or structure at all, but it's fun and I hope you enjoy my work as well.

My first work of fiction here on Vocal was The Partisan. A short story about an officer captured by revolutionaries in a setting inspired by the Irish War for Independence. I believe it still holds the record for the longest single piece I've released. This story was a fun exploration of themes regarding violence, legacy, loss, and peace after a war. If you haven't read it, I hope you do, and please let me know what you think. The foundations of my work as it is can all be found therein, so it could be neat to track the evolution. Or maybe that's something only I do.

Despite the fact that I have entered many Official Challenges, I have yet to place in any. Disappointing as this always is, I simply remind myself that it was a chance to learn and grow. Simpmly entering, and thinking myself reasonably good at the craft, does not equate to a victory. However, I have had the great honour of coming second place in last year's Writing Awards contest.

Holy Terra was an incredibly fun story to write and I'm so thankful that you thought it good enough to vote for. From the depths of my heart, thank you for that shot of encouragement! It was exactly what I needed to keep going, keep trying. To know that my work was good enough, even if I don't yet merit a place on the podiums.

A further thing to be grateful for is the amazing support I had for my first ever unofficial challenge! Hear ye! Hear ye! was an experiment of mine in running a challenge myself. So far, I have had absolutely no reason to complain about any part of the process! I have started a first reading of all the submissions and am greatly enjoying every one so far!

Thank you everyone who submitted and thank you also to everyone who read, liked, and commented! I truly appreciate all the support and deeply treasure every heart and comment my stories receive!

The past almost two years have been deeply rewarding for me. I hope that in exchange, I have been able to provide entertainment to you all and hope to have the honour of doing so again!

For those of you waiting for the next continuation of Descent (storyline 2 of Donna Fox's community story Challenge) or The Archive, I am deeply sorry for how long it is taking me to create those stories. Honestly I didn't know how difficult this would prove to be when I first started them. If I had, then I would have waited longer to start releasing, so that the wait wouldn't ever be too bad.

I promise I'm working on them! Hopefully I'll be able to complete the former soon and turn my full attention to the latter. I appreciate all your support and patience!

Once again, thank you all so much for all the support you've given me so far! Here's to 2,000 more!