salshep

Thanks so much (belatedly) for all the birthday cheers,  dear people-- I was reading, if not posting, and it was lovely reading your messages.

And also, I'm so sorry I've been absent -- I know I had plans with some of you, and the whole CommunityLit thing,  and I hope I haven't let anyone down too badly. Things are better for me now, and I'm back on a more regular basis, so please do poke me if you need anything, or want to continue a project, or just say 'hi'. 

I see some of you have been really busy writing/creating. I can't wait to catch up on all of it!  <3 

If there's something you're really proud of, do leave me a link in comments? 

Dear dA friends and loved ones, I hope you're all having a wonderful holiday. I am revelling in post-Christmas day food bloat and deep relaxation, the weather is lovely, and all is well. May your day be as blessed. 

I'm really looking forward to 2019 -- I've a couple of exciting plans and, more importantly, the energy to carry them out. 

What are your plans for the coming year? 

Slinkyfest -- Results Are In!And once more, a huge cheers to all participants. Slinkies are harder to write than they sound, and everyone really put in a fantastic effort.
Winners were decided by averaging scores given by three judges - myself, barefootliam and zebrazebrazebra -- so results may not reflect every judge's particular picks but are an overall aggregate of scores. It was a -really- close competition!
And of course, what's a contest without prizes? Enormous thanks to Evilhappy for a most generous contribution, and those 'anonymous' benefactors who also made this comp possible.
And now-- to the results!
  First Place: AbCat
a 3-month sub from CommunityLit
a 3-month sub courtesy of Evilhappy

Second Place : ShadowedAcolyte
a one month sub from CommunityLit
a one month sub courtesy of Evilhappy

Third Place: achoohoo
:bull

^ awesome.

What Jon-Law Said

The godfather of Lit himself popped into CommunityLit yesterday, and said a thing that really helped me get perspective on this place. 

I have to paraphrase, sorry, but basically the gist was, "Quit worrying about dA's problems - stfu and write". 

Sometimes one just needs to be told these things, you know? 

So, more energy will go to awesome projects like CommunityLit (where a real sense of community is slowly but surely developing, thanks to a great bunch of chat regulars) and the various things run by other worthwhile Lit groups ---- and ofc, there'll be writing.

And if dA wants to let its prose gallery be full of fetish porn, then maybe that is dA's actual issue to address.  It's not like they're unaware of it, yannow?

I feel better already. Thanks, Jon, for helping me get my head on straight. I needed that.

Speaking of CommunityLit ... there'll be a members-only contest happening fairly soon, so if you want to be a part of that splendid event and others like it, do remember to join the group.

And why not pop in to our fantastic, friendly, Lit-oriented chat , while you're at it? 

Oh but Sal, what's happened to the Cabalists Poetry Features??

Glad you asked -- due to the transient population of Cabalists, I'll be moving that feature over to CommunityLit in December, and from there the monthly bouts of poemy goodness being posted to Lit Forum will continue as usual. 

NOV 15th  is the deadline for the Slinkyfest 2018 competition:

Slinkyfest 2018!By now, you all who watch me will be aware of the new poetry form created by edzull this year, called 'the slinky'.  Some of you have even written one!
Well here's some incentive to do it (or do it again!)
Slinkyfest 2018 is the first annual Slinky competition, brought to you by CommunityLit, the fantastic new group ... for Lit groups (and writers in general, of course). 
So -- what's a slinky, Sal?
For those unaware, a slinky is a poem of 16 lines, any line length, any meter, rhymed or un-rhymed-- with a single word (must be a noun, verb or adjective) repeated on every single line.
So the word bounces down the lines like a slinky toy. :iconslinkyplz:
For a list of good examples, see the slinky database in the journal linked below:

Awesome! So how do I enter this

Have you got your slink on yet?

Don't forget to submit your entry to the CommunityLit Slinkyfest folder before midnight, Nov 15th. It's a fun poetry form with very few rules, so give it a shot!

LIT GROUPS - do get your members involved, they could win a prize for your group, too! 

Hi all!  First -- how are you doing? What are you writing/reading/drawing/making lately? Throw me a link or two in comments, if you've got some? I'd love to see!



UPDATES
There's just ONE WEEK TO GO  for the Slinkyfest 2018 competition, and we've already got entries trickling in.... the prize pool is awesome, so get your slink on and submit your entry to the CommunityLit Slinkyfest folder before midnight, Nov 15th. It's a fun poetry form with very few rules, so give it a shot!

and attention, LIT GROUPS - get your members involved, and they could win you a prize for your group, too! 

Speaking of CommunityLit -- we've been up and running just a month now, and the response has been fantastic! In those few short weeks we have:

- 45 members in the group.
- Hosted a fantastic competition, see above.
- Sponsored an upcoming haiku competition  by Meterious
- Featured a 'Poem of the Day' in our topic header.
- Gathered a solid group of 'regulars' in the chat, with crits and lit discussion (and a fair amount of hilarious nonsense) going on at all hours. Do pop by and check it out, if you haven't already: #CommunityLit

In weeks to come, I really want to get the chat hopping with reading and discussion of DD's and other lit submissions, as well as doing something more with  the 'poem of the day' concept. Ideas for that would be very welcome!

NEWS

The lovely monstash and I are in the process of developing a text-only multi-player roleplaying game, which is going to be really freakin awesome. It's in early development right now, so I won't say too much about it just yet-- except, writers and roleplayers are gonna loooove the heck outta this thing. I'll be posting more news on that, as things develop!

...AND ABOUT THE FETISH THING  

According to the poll (up top of my page there) so far, 83% of respondents say they think 'Fetish Lit" needs its own space, rather than being all over the Prose gallery. That's 38/46 - I'll keep the poll up a while longer, because I think it's a real problem that desperately needs addressing.

And to that end, I've also made This Here Forum Post for further discussion -- and there's been quite a bit of it so far. 

I just want to make it clear -- I'm NOT against erotic/fetish literature -- whatever floats your boat, you know?

What I'm saying is -- fetish lit is SWAMPING the Lit>Prose gallery to a completely untenable degree, and clearly something really needs to be done about that.

But what? What could -feasibly- be done to alleviate the problem?

My idea is -- give 'Fetish' its own category. It has one under 'Photography' -- so why not Lit? And not just stuffed into ?Prose somewhere, where it'll continue making browsing prose an absolute nightmare. I mean, a whole category of its own, Literature>Fetish -- that'd work for all concerned, I really believe it would.

But maybe you've got some other ideas? Go to the forum thread, and add your :2cents: