After the shock of learning that the incubator for me and for many other aspiring writers is being shut off at the end of September, a lot of energy has been spent scrambling to find a viable alternative.
It's wonderful being in a group of creative and resourceful people. I don't consider myself so. Just because I express my imagination doesn't make me creative or resourceful. It just means I spend a lot of time in front of a computer writing what I think or feel or imagine.
On the other hand, there are a few that have set up a free website for writers. It isn't polished and pretty, but it's pretty cool that it's free and has many of the same message boards as the forum on Authonomy. Yesterday, I signed up and it's a place where I can keep in touch with the acquaintances I've made on Autho until the last of the dust settles.
I started re-upping my profiles in other places, too. Book Country being the first, Scribophile will be next. I signed up for Scribblers - the site created by the resourceful gentleman from Authonomy and I'll go back to Scribophile which is a little strange in its format.
There will be life after Authonomy, but people are already scattering, and that's sad. Some choose not to be on Facebook, which is fine and understandable, but the thought of losing touch with them is depressing.
Yes, I know. Life will go on, and I'll have fond memories of them, but there will be a hole where they once stood.
Since I didn't know them well or personally, it will be a small hole, but a void and my life will be poorer for not having them there. Ah, well.
We all make choices and everyone lives with them. The benefit is that I had the chance to get to know these people a little, however fleetingly, and I am better for it - so I win even though I also lose.
Perhaps, once the silence of not participating in an active group settles around them like a cloak, they will reach out and join other sites. Who knows, perhaps we'll stumble across one another again - on the other side.
But there are a lot of people that are wanting to stay connected. I've reached out to many of them on Facebook, and on Book Country. I'll do the same on Scribophile. It won't be the same, but that is a part of life and living.
Change is hard for people. But to remain static is to die, so change is good. It refreshes and regenerates and, no matter how sad I am to see Authonomy go, I still say that I am richer for having belonged.
So - I'm off to struggle with the change, to embrace and accept it by signing up on the writer's sites that I can find so I can see which will become my new 'home'.
Have a lovely day!
Best~
Philippa
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories
Showing posts with label Harper Collins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Harper Collins. Show all posts
Friday, August 21, 2015
Thursday, August 20, 2015
NOO-O-O-O-O-O!!!
The sad word came down yesterday that Harper Collins is closing down its Authonomy website come the end of September.
Personally, this is like losing a really good friend. Authonomy is the site on which I first came out of my cocoon and made my writing public. It's like losing my crib or something and for the past twenty-four hours I've run the gamut of despair to resignation to acceptance and back. Which is why this post is arriving so late in the day - I'm back in denial and flailing for answers that just aren't there.
Autho and I didn't always see eye-to-eye. It didn't always like me and I didn't always like Autho, but it's been like a drug. I kept going back for more and now, come midnight (I guess) on 09/30 it will go dark - and that's sad.
There are a lot of great people there - some I will miss more than others, but all of whom have enriched me in one way or another. They have held up the mirror and revealed my own warts, or they have supported me when I've stumbled.
We users may cross the river and gather on the other side. Discussions came up, after the gasps of shock, about how and where and I hope at least some don't burst like soap bubbles on a windy day.
Yes, there are other sites. Yes, there is Scribophile and Book Country and Wattpad for the writers, but they aren't nearly as interactive or exciting as Authonomy has been.
On Authonomy there were stamping feet and flying objects (mostly imaginary) when people had sharp disagreements, which was part of its charm once the tempest died down. It was like being in a bar before, during and after a John Wayne-type brawl.
Scribophile, for one, is far more civilized and disagreements are frowned upon - heavily moderated - which reduces the popcorn munching interest of standing on the sidelines and watching two or three or several people going at it.
I haven't been on Scribophile for nearly a year, so maybe things have changed.
I also have an account with Book Country, but I haven't been there for nearly as long as Scribo, and the last time I was there it was just about the least friendly / most unusable site I've ever seen. Have things changed? I don't know but I guess I'll find out.
Well, this goes to show, yesterday was, indeed, one of THOSE days.
As another one of those comeuppance moments, I misspoke on my Twitter post the other day - my post came out: Boycott Philippa Stories which was NOT my intent at all, and I got poked for it in a Tweet I discovered yesterday morning. One of those cases of 'unintended consequence' and not seeing the problem until after the fact - so I just smiled, deleted my original and re-tweeted.
Then I discovered Autho is biting the dust.
A sad, awful, distressing day indeed. But yesterday passed and I'm into today. I've re-upped my account at Book Country and will try that. I'll re-up my account at Scribophile, too. Another site, absolutewrite, has my name and I'm just waiting for them to unlock the door.
Some members on Autho are discussing ways and means to create our own website - which would be marvelous and cool, but I suspect that as such things do, it is more doomed to failure than likely to succeed. The first blush of crisis is wearing off and some members are starting to shrug their shoulders and say 'oh well, it was fun while it lasted'.
I guess, as with everything else, time will tell. In the meantime, I hope your past two days have been marvelous, and I wish you more of the same, tomorrow.
Best~
Philippa
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories
Personally, this is like losing a really good friend. Authonomy is the site on which I first came out of my cocoon and made my writing public. It's like losing my crib or something and for the past twenty-four hours I've run the gamut of despair to resignation to acceptance and back. Which is why this post is arriving so late in the day - I'm back in denial and flailing for answers that just aren't there.
Autho and I didn't always see eye-to-eye. It didn't always like me and I didn't always like Autho, but it's been like a drug. I kept going back for more and now, come midnight (I guess) on 09/30 it will go dark - and that's sad.
There are a lot of great people there - some I will miss more than others, but all of whom have enriched me in one way or another. They have held up the mirror and revealed my own warts, or they have supported me when I've stumbled.
We users may cross the river and gather on the other side. Discussions came up, after the gasps of shock, about how and where and I hope at least some don't burst like soap bubbles on a windy day.
Yes, there are other sites. Yes, there is Scribophile and Book Country and Wattpad for the writers, but they aren't nearly as interactive or exciting as Authonomy has been.
On Authonomy there were stamping feet and flying objects (mostly imaginary) when people had sharp disagreements, which was part of its charm once the tempest died down. It was like being in a bar before, during and after a John Wayne-type brawl.
Scribophile, for one, is far more civilized and disagreements are frowned upon - heavily moderated - which reduces the popcorn munching interest of standing on the sidelines and watching two or three or several people going at it.
I haven't been on Scribophile for nearly a year, so maybe things have changed.
I also have an account with Book Country, but I haven't been there for nearly as long as Scribo, and the last time I was there it was just about the least friendly / most unusable site I've ever seen. Have things changed? I don't know but I guess I'll find out.
Well, this goes to show, yesterday was, indeed, one of THOSE days.
As another one of those comeuppance moments, I misspoke on my Twitter post the other day - my post came out: Boycott Philippa Stories which was NOT my intent at all, and I got poked for it in a Tweet I discovered yesterday morning. One of those cases of 'unintended consequence' and not seeing the problem until after the fact - so I just smiled, deleted my original and re-tweeted.
Then I discovered Autho is biting the dust.
A sad, awful, distressing day indeed. But yesterday passed and I'm into today. I've re-upped my account at Book Country and will try that. I'll re-up my account at Scribophile, too. Another site, absolutewrite, has my name and I'm just waiting for them to unlock the door.
Some members on Autho are discussing ways and means to create our own website - which would be marvelous and cool, but I suspect that as such things do, it is more doomed to failure than likely to succeed. The first blush of crisis is wearing off and some members are starting to shrug their shoulders and say 'oh well, it was fun while it lasted'.
I guess, as with everything else, time will tell. In the meantime, I hope your past two days have been marvelous, and I wish you more of the same, tomorrow.
Best~
Philippa
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories
Friday, April 17, 2015
First Blog
Good morning!
Admission: this is my first try at blogging and it's a bit intimidating. What do I say? Will anyone care? Probably not, but we're all doing it anyway, so why not me, too?
I don't know what this will be - ramblings, little tit bits of information about me, about my place in the world (Sonoma County, California), grumblings. Maybe a flash fiction piece or something longer.
You see, I want to be an author. A friend of mine and I are currently writers. We put things down on the modern paper of a computer screen - stories and so on - but we haven't yet been discovered. So we're writers. Once we're discovered and get published, or publish ourselves, we'll become authors. It's kind of like caterpillars to butterflies.
Eighteen months ago I decided to stop writing in a vacuum and see what was available to budding writers for honing skills and gaining some visibility.
I discovered Harper Collins's writer's site, Authonomy - https://www.authonomy.com/ - which is a place where writers of all stripes and abilities get together. We post books, we talk, we fight, we laugh, we joke. It's kind of like Christmas in a big dysfunctional family at times, but it's my second life. When I'm online, I'm almost always there, laughing and fighting, writing and posting.
Right now I'm on the cusp of moving from writer to author.
A few months ago, one of the published and highly successful Authonomy members posted a link to the Inca Project - http://www.incaproject.co.uk/. It is a website for new, recently discovered or undiscovered authors.
I submitted a bit of my writing based on their requirements. They accepted me as a member. A couple of months later, after gathering my courage, I offered the person who runs the site my MS. He read it, wrote back that he loves it and wants to see it set loose on the world.
Largely because of his wonderful and much needed pushiness, my chrysalis is splitting. In another couple of months my first book will be out on Amazon and I will emerge into the world with a brand new shiny set of wings.
In the meantime, I'm working on other things. It's my passion. It's what I love doing more than anything else, which is another reason I created this blog. It's an extension of my desire to write, to write well and to provide entertainment and a little escape from the stuff 'out there'.
So - that's my first blog under my belt. I'll be back and, hopefully, I'll have something more interesting to offer.
Best~
Philippa
Follow me at: Philippastories@twitter.com
Admission: this is my first try at blogging and it's a bit intimidating. What do I say? Will anyone care? Probably not, but we're all doing it anyway, so why not me, too?
I don't know what this will be - ramblings, little tit bits of information about me, about my place in the world (Sonoma County, California), grumblings. Maybe a flash fiction piece or something longer.
You see, I want to be an author. A friend of mine and I are currently writers. We put things down on the modern paper of a computer screen - stories and so on - but we haven't yet been discovered. So we're writers. Once we're discovered and get published, or publish ourselves, we'll become authors. It's kind of like caterpillars to butterflies.
Eighteen months ago I decided to stop writing in a vacuum and see what was available to budding writers for honing skills and gaining some visibility.
I discovered Harper Collins's writer's site, Authonomy - https://www.authonomy.com/ - which is a place where writers of all stripes and abilities get together. We post books, we talk, we fight, we laugh, we joke. It's kind of like Christmas in a big dysfunctional family at times, but it's my second life. When I'm online, I'm almost always there, laughing and fighting, writing and posting.
Right now I'm on the cusp of moving from writer to author.
A few months ago, one of the published and highly successful Authonomy members posted a link to the Inca Project - http://www.incaproject.co.uk/. It is a website for new, recently discovered or undiscovered authors.
I submitted a bit of my writing based on their requirements. They accepted me as a member. A couple of months later, after gathering my courage, I offered the person who runs the site my MS. He read it, wrote back that he loves it and wants to see it set loose on the world.
Largely because of his wonderful and much needed pushiness, my chrysalis is splitting. In another couple of months my first book will be out on Amazon and I will emerge into the world with a brand new shiny set of wings.
In the meantime, I'm working on other things. It's my passion. It's what I love doing more than anything else, which is another reason I created this blog. It's an extension of my desire to write, to write well and to provide entertainment and a little escape from the stuff 'out there'.
So - that's my first blog under my belt. I'll be back and, hopefully, I'll have something more interesting to offer.
Best~
Philippa
Follow me at: Philippastories@twitter.com
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