Weekly Short Stories Contest and Company! discussion

Awww, we love you too! You're amazing!

Thank you, Alex! That's very sweet of you. I say this with utmost confidence, you're definitely going to be a brilliant writer whose work will be widely acclaimed. Infact, you already are. Honestly speaking, I wish I had your intuition, clarity of thought and flair in writing. I've said this earlier, your writing is so decisive and flows beautifully.

This is probably the best place to express my gratitude to all of you. Plain and simple, you guys rock. I'm not overstating when I say this, you guys have literally saved me from a period of personal low and struggle. Writing was the only thing that brought peace to me and all of you have contributed towards it's improvement in a huge way.

Each single time, I'm thrilled to receive your comments. Whenever I'm in need of inspiration, I just log into GR and pay a visit to the W.S.S. This place is such an amazing pool of talent. It's the singular thing that keeps me going. In fact, all of you have been far too kind on my work, but that's exactly what I needed to get started and keep going. Thanks for that!

When I started off at the W.S.S, I got off on the wrong foot (having been guilty of voting for myself initially). My apologies for that, I've learnt and matured over time. All of you are extremely talented, I wish you all the very best in everything.

Forever yours,
Ajay

I second Ajay's post. Much more eloquent than mine XP

Hear, hear! I agree with Ajay. This is my favorite group.

:) Thank you, Alex!

Haha, you're most welcome, Alex!

Haha, how good is a group hug?! You pirates are the best ;)

Alex is awesome! And so are all of you guys too!

Huggles for everyone!

PIRATES!!! XD

And, I just wanna say, you guys really DO rock. Without this group, my writing would not have improved, I would not be half as motivated to write, and, frankly, you guys are just great company.
I loveloveLOVE you silly old pirates!!!

We lovelovelove you too :D

Well, you all know I haven't contributed much to this group, but I love you all. Lol. And especially Al!! :D Cuz it's, like, kind of my duty... ;)

Hanzle, you’re one of the founders! Haven’t contributed much to the group . . . I just love a dry sense of humor.

Definitely.

I'm just glad I found this group. It's hard to believe it's been almost three years since I've started here. You know how you join groups and then you leave them a few months later? This isn't one of them. I think I'll be here till the day I or it dies because I will always write. I hunted around and joined quite a few writing groups on goodreads but this is the only one that has ever lasted. Thanks, Al, for taking over it.

If you ever leave it, its heart and soul will be gone, and it will evaporate like the mists on a pond.

Guys, cheer up! This is so depressing! :O

Al, you are more than welcome, and like the others, my thanks go right back to you for whatever it is in you, your heart and soul or whatever, that has been the architect that brought this group into our lives with its openness of possibility. The fact that you are talented is just a delightful bonus.

And like the others, I've poked around a little with other groups, but there is something magical here. I can wrestle with what it is, in my mind, but I think it has more to do with the heart you and those who have stayed here bring it. I am frequently amazed at both the breadth of creative expression, even if it isn't 'great' because that breadth is the breath (Latin spirit) that has allowed and encouraged all of us to improve. And now, there is sometimes true original brilliance as good as anything that you can read anywhere.

Oddly enough, at a work function Friday my friend Tim and I talked extensively about this group. He has found the WSS to be stimulating and so positive, and like nothing he has experienced. And he has been to 'real' writing workshops in his past.

So, Al, really, it is we who need to thank you for hanging in there and trusting your instincts enough to keep the WSS going where you felt it had to go. I have felt, quite literally, blessed to have by some weird fushigi fluke/miracle to have stumbled into this place and allow my curiosity to keep me here long enough to appreciate its magic.

Tis a beautiful place to hang out. (And with some embarrassement I confess to a pooling of some salty water in the corner of my eye. Gad! Must be the full moon waxing my sentiment watery!)

I know this is Al's place to to say thanks to us, but I have got to chime in with my own thanks.

I came to you folks a few months back and could hardly work up the courage to post my poem. I never made a better choice. All of you have been so helpful and kind, and getting to read and comment no less on your amazing poems has been so instructive and truly and honor. Thank you so much.

Christa, I’m the same way. I do hardly any writing outside of this group. The W.S.S., it seems to me, is like a place where nearly all currency is negotiable, including mine.

I'm assuming writing is the currency here?

Writing, temperament, philosophy of life, taste in literature and in writing style. I guess that's what I had in mind.

Okay. Haha. Just making sure.

What did you think I had in mind? Maybe I shouldn't ask.

I don't know. I'm still tired haha. Everything looks strange.

The broken sheds looked sad and strange . . .

... and strange it was, how sad they looked.

. . . as though ’twere strange to be a shed,
or to be a hay barn instead . . .

No idea what that was, guys. But I laughed.

Love the last one, M.

Thank you, Stephanie!

"Hey!" he said, "I am a stranger in a strange land,
bailing hay to clear this year a couple of grand."

At once, he recognized the danger:
though he was strange, the land was stranger.

Love the lines, "though he was strange, the land was stranger." and "I am a stranger in a strange land"

Stranger in a Strange Land is the title of science fiction novel by Robert Heinlein. The phrase comes from Exodus: “And she bare him a son, and she called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.”

Okay.

I just thought people might find it an interesting tidbit to know. It used to be the vogue to use phrases from the Bible and from poems to name novels. There’s Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and For Whom the Bell Tolls. Margaret Mitchell got Gone With the Wind from a poem called “Cynara,” by Ernest Dowson.

That is interesting. I didn't know that.

M, that is a great reference, because the phrase 'stranger in a strange land' is also used in the Richard Wilhelm/Cary Baynes' translation of the I Ching. And that is the context by which it is most familiar to me.

Hexagram 56/The Wanderer.

"4.A stranger in a strange land can find shelter through using personal skill and strength. But as a stranger must forever be on guard, even calling the place home. No peaceful heart."

And to M's point, 'The Wanderer' is a title of a Fritz Leiber sci-fi book The Wanderer.

M, that's very cool. I didn't know that either.

Ah! All of these posts make me feel guilty for disappearing on everyone. :/ I miss you guys and love you all!

Hello Cheyenne. No need to feel guilty. Whenever you have the opportunity to visit, the crew will welcome you.

What Guy said.

Thanks both of you :)