Today is the anniversary of
my very first Brian and Justin fic-- I remember I posted it at night and I went to bed feeling apprehensive with half a mind to delete my journal the next day (and also kind of like a pervert), but when I woke up the next day, I had an inbox full of comments. I spent the whole day feeling giddy ;))
A year later, that story actually makes me cringe, and a couple of times I have almost gone back to edit, but in a way I like that it is so flawed because it makes me feel as though I have really improved as a writer. Of course I give most of the credit for that to
burnitbackwards who is ridiculously and uncannily good at showing me how to get better :X:X:X
The very first person I talked to in fandom, which was actually before I posted my B/J story, was
lennongirl and she was so nice and encouraging which boosted my confidence quite a bit-- Ani, there will always be a special place in my heart for you because of that :X:X
Soon after posting, I got an IM from
burnitbackwards. She introduced me to
f1renze and it was with the two of them that I experienced my very first chat, and the rest, well, the rest as they say is history.
I have many, many fond memories of those first weeks: SDV giving me interactive chat feedback on one of my very first stories WHICH I HAVE SAVED AND PERIODICALLY GO BACK AND READ ANYTIME I NEED TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT MYSELF, shrieking with laughter listening to Rachel’s work related trauma, Caitie and her vibrator :X:X:X:X, more nights than I can count of giggly drunken chats with BIBW and Flozie, finally, FINALLY meeting Tink who was one of my biggest sources of inspiration for writing in the first place but who remained elusive in my early days in fandom, and approximately 673549607 nights in chat with some or all of the previously mentioned peoples during which I was pretty much like @-) while they told me stories about who was who and what was what in this crazy little corner of cyberspace.
So whether we have ever spoken or not, thank you to everyone who has me friended and who reads my journal for one reason or another (although if I had to guess I’d say it was because of one reason and not another if you catch my drift.) This has been a v.v. fun year, and I only wish I had made it to the party sooner!