A Serious Note On The Occasion of HOL Reaching 25000 Posts

Yep folks believe it or not this one is serious!

There are many among AW who dismiss Ray's House of Love (known as HOL) as just a place where a bunch of nuts kid around, write much to do about nothing and otherwise waste their time. There is nothing wrong with that opinion, though perhaps maybe, it is time to try and explain the dynamics of what causes HOL to be so popular among those who populate its halls and sit in the hot tub.

HOL, if you will allow me, exists due to two people. Jenna, who has the decency and wisdom to allow it to continue and thrive, and Ray who is nuts enough to run the joint. I truly thank them and I know all those at HOL thank them as well.

But there is an inner dynamic that goes on among all the friends at HOL, something that I think is part of AW as a whole, and also shows the vibrant community that Jenna has managed to create with AW.

When I first popped in at HOL, it didn't matter beans to anyone who I was or who I wasn't. It is one of the most forgiving and accepting atmospheres that I have ever seen in a forum board or internet chat system. Sure the people that frequent the place and those that drop in from time to time are from such a diverse group of humanity that it would be impossible to qualify it with any one specific type except to say that everyone is respectful and friendly of the other. HOL kind of developed into almost an immediate chat system where anything that you can possibly imagine may and probably will appear on your screen at any given time.

But the true MAGIC of HOL - the people who do frequent and visit even from time to time - comes from the fact that in many ways we allow our friends in HOL to view our inner minds and souls as writers in ways that we are hesitant to do in our daily lives. The more we reveal the more we read of others, in such a diverse group the more we are amazed and feel ever-growing friendship for each other. We feel for each other, not just read posts.

I would venture to say that not one of the people in HOL "ignores" any other part of AW. Indeed, they are frequent posters in the Newbie and Goals/Accomplishments section. We try all over the AW board to offer advice, hold a hand, lend a shoulder and otherwise help out fellow writers. Sure there are the experts that handle things so much more professionally when it comes to "real" knowledge. And YES this is what AW is for. For the Jim McDonald's and the Victoria Strauss's and the Jenna Glatzer's and all the rest. But we do what we can, in the areas where we can.

Still there is one thing that HOL has offered me personally that no other forum on AW can offer me. It offers me, as silly as this may sound to some, a safe haven in a world often torn apart with the need to create and be creative. There are so many that no matter what they are doing or where they are going, will take the moment in the day, to pop in and say GM HOL. As silly as that may sound it is very secure knowing I am going to see that post almost every day.

The people of HOL have become friends. They have become helpers. They have grown in their craft. And yes though HOL is at many times a place of pure silliness and kidding around, it is also a place where you will find posts on writing, on deep anxiety of writing, on trying to understand each other and what we are doing as people and writers. A place where you will find the REAL person behind the avatar.

And make no mistake. You will find everything from erotica to food writing, from literary to mysteries, from horror to mainstream represented among the people who populate HOL.

Yes, I have made many friends on AW outside of HOL. But HOL is not just a silly place where people post much ado about nothing. It is a very serious place, where writers who are people, learn to be friends and learn that they are not alone.

If you havent done so, you should drop by sometime. It may not be the place for you, but it is one of the places that is worth a visit in the AW board.

Thank you Jenna for your patience and wisdom.
Thank you Ray for your all the presents you promised us.

May HOL live to see the next 25,000 posts of friendship and understanding.

(even if I am the only innocent and sane one among them!)

shush Haggis..you will cause the wrath of Jenna to fall upon us

Ray only tells us he is naked...so he can well....forget it...not saying

kristie911 said:

I'm just there for the men and the alcohol.

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you forgot the handcuffs

writerterri said:

Between me and Teddy is a lot of hot air.

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Rob will go to town with that remark!

Which reminds me Trish...
cough cough...
I seem to remember something about a deadline..short story...you know the little things

Kevin the following was written when you and NF were telling me yesterday that not everything is black....
So I dedicate it to you...

There are days when the words simply wont leave my brain and paint themselves upon the paper.
There are days when the only color I see is black.
There are days when no matter what inspirational lesson I try and take from life, there is simply no hope, no future, nothing worthwhile.

Those days pass in a haze without a page, a paragraph, a sentence even nary a word make their way to the paper in front of me. They seem to be a waste of time, of effort - a waste of life.

They scare me those days of nothing. They scare the living daylights out of me. When we don't move forward, when we don't accomplish, we regress. I have no time to regress anymore. I cannot afford the Stygian blackness of life's pain.

The dawn slowly comes. It creeps up, and though the black lingers it is powerless against the light. And then my mind suddenly realizes that it was during that dark period something deep inside of my inner being was at work. Sifting, thinking, judging, feeling, understanding, touching with soft tendrils the very essence of the pain. Somewhere deep inside even while my consciousness was totally centered around the nothingness of no light, while my soul delved deep in Saturnalia, something deep inside was still very much alive creating the letters which form into words the words which form into sentences the sentences into paragraphs and the paragraphs into a story.

I have learned to welcome the dark days. I no longer fear them as I once did. And yet I never remember while sitting without the benefit of a candle to light my way, that there is light at the end of this hell.

This is the only path I know to write what I want to write. It is full of fear, loneliness and the pathways of purgatory. Yet it too is part of the process of creation. Almost as if we strive to imitate God in His creation, where He created darkness and light and they existed as one until he separated them. Thus the darkness too, though feared, is part of the process of creating light. It too is part of creation.

And as writers we strive to create.

Bravo you know YOU LOVE IT THERE....
and YOU love to be serious
so viola....

I am so tempted to comment...but I am going to be GOOD