I don't feel I've a right to post in this thread since I've been here such a short time, but there's something I think needs to be said, and which I'm ashamed to say never occurred to me till I saw Victoria's post:
How many of us say lightly in our posts 'shouldn't be here, should be writing'; 'must stop spending time on AW when I should be working'; 'X, who ought to be writing, not posting here' - and so on and so on ad infinitum?
Victoria is busier than any of us, both as a successful and much-in-demand writer, and also as an unpaid and often unthanked champion of less fortunate writers the world over. Yet she's found time to come to AW - not for fun, not for work-displacement, not when she's stuck on a paragraph and needs a distraction - she's done it solely to help other people.
It's so true you don't know what you've got till you lose it. I never even thought about what Victoria was giving until I saw she needed to pull back. I'm utterly ashamed of myself that I didn't, and can't say anything other than 'thank you so much for giving so much of yourself for so long'.
I hope, Victoria, you really will come back occasionally. New as I am, I still miss my heroine Jenna, who hasn't posted here since February, and hope very much you won't disappear in the same way.
You've every right to, and we've no right to ask you to give any more of your time here. But I hope you will, all the same...
Louise