Happy 2 year bloggiversary!

Once upon a time in a far away place called The Internet a group of women would gather on a message board to discuss a very cute boy...


From those discussions friendships formed and, as with all friendships, different topics came to be discussed. One member of the board talked a LOT about stuff she read. People started coming to her to ask what she thought of various fics. She read fast, she read a lot, she had a bad back and spent that summer, well, reading. One friend suggested she start a blog to rec the stuff she read. That is how SYTYCW was born.


A lot has happened over the two years we have been talking to our assorted fans. We started out on Wordpress and you can still see the original (silly and mostly unedited) posts here and then something amazing happened. A FAN (yes, an actual fan!) offered us space and hosting for our own site. Eventually we grew so large that they could no longer host us for free. Since this is done just for fun (read that as SUE is far too cheap to pay for stuff) our group decided to move to our current blog on Blogger in March of 2010. 


We, as a group, were the first in fandom to do interviews. We introduced many to Harry Potter fic (and for some this was a re introduction after years away from HPFF) and we have grown more in the two years here than we could have imagined. We have talked movies and books and have changed our style from the really silly to slightly more serious. It is our goal to eventually phase out of fic and talk to authors of published works because all the workers on the blog love to read.


One of the things we love best about SYTYCW is featuring the talents of writers who have been using ficdom to hone their writing skills even if they never take the leap to becoming published. It is our hope that someday, if writing is really their dream, we somehow had a small hand in encouraging that gift.


So my friends. Thanks from all of us for reading.


Following now are some personal words from our staff. Some of which have been here from the very beginning, others that have joined us during the last years. 


First up we have some words from Sue:

I find it really hard to believe that I have done anything voluntarily for 2 years. I also find it hard to believe that people actually read things we suggest here (well not when others suggest them but from my silly fic interviews) I love having a reason to do two things I really love: read and talk to people.

Over the last two years I have met so many amazing people, many of whom have become dear friends. I have been able to talk with people from around the world on a variety of topics and, because of this blog, I have been able to, I hope, inspire others not just to read more fic but just to read more. I have been able to talk to some really talented people who have brought me tons of entertainment for free by their writing and chatting on Twitter. 

I guess the biggest thing I have to say is "Thank You"

Thank you to the people that read my silliness

Thank you to the people that take a fic or book from here and go tell the authors how much their work is appreciated

Thank you to the writers that say YES when I ask if I can send them my LONG list of Qs 

Thank you to my affiliates for spreading the word 

but most of all Thank you to Tanja, Hannah and Jeannie and all our friends who work make this blog possible 

Happy Bloggiversary SYTYCW. It has been a great 2 years. 

Sue

From Jeannie

Happy Bloggiversary to us, Happy Bloggiversary to us, Happy Bloggiversary to So You Think You Can Wriiiii-ite, Happy Bloggiversary to us!  

So two years we’ve been at this, huh? Well, I can’t say really how the last two years have been for me since I just joined the fun this past year but I can tell you how much fun it’s been for me as the newest member of the staff (*giggles*).

Well first of all, my involvement with SYTYCW was just a fluke. But what started out as a guest blog appearance with a book review became a somewhat regular gig. Now there are times I have up to four reviews to write at a time (that’s almost as many book I am reading at one time). And honestly, I love every minute of it. What is it that I truly enjoy about being part of this rag tag team of ladies? Well first of all we are all pretty opinionated and are not really shy about it either. Sometimes that gets us in trouble (*wink wink* nudge nudge to Tanja) but through it all no matter what our differences in opinion are we respect each other the next morning and honestly, that’s hard to do sometimes, especially with a bunch of women. Highly opinionated women at that! I have never met Sue, Hannah or Tanja before in RL and the chances of the four of us coming together anytime soon is far fetched (if you haven’t gathered already we live in 4 different time zones across two different continents and 3 different countries) but I feel just as close to them as if they were my next door neighbors.

So obviously I love these girls and there really isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for them but what you may not know are these tiny facts I’d like to share with you about how we’ve evolved as a team and as friends over the past two years (ok, I really only know my parts of it from this past year but you get the gist of what I’m saying).

Here we go:
One day Sue and Tanja and I will design costumes and put together our own mini punk band called “Smut and Suicide.” There will be guyliner involved, so watch for that. (T here, I hope one of us saved those tweets!)

Sometimes Tanja and I joke about sharing the same brain but there are days when I truly believe this. I swear we think exactly alike and if we had a dime for every “ITA!” we’ve exchanged we’d be rich right now.

I do believe Hannah and I watched most of this year’s Coachella music festival together live. Despite our 8 hour time difference, we managed to ooh and aaah over the Freelance Whales set and explode skype over any “Crispy” sightings in the audience.

Sue and I have talked about potty training way more than I ever expected to on Twitter. We may have violated Twitter TOS over it.

The jokes Hannah and I have about her sister Megan being a whale baby will never get old. Never.

Tanja is the only person I am not even slightly embarrassed about sharing my smutty reading habits with.

I really appreciate Hannah always wanting to Skype with me when it’s convenient for me and not really for her. I can’t even recall the times she’s planned her day around a 2:30am skype chat with me about nothing more than the latest Glee episode.

Tanja and Hannah are my Glee soulmates. I really don’t know two other people as enamoured with this show as much as I am and for that I do believe we qualify for making honorary Warblerettes.

Sue is one of the best parents I know. If I have just a quarter of the parenting skills she possesses with her five boys that I have with my one and a half kids I will be a lucky Mom.

There is no greater friend I have than Tanja. Bar none, she’s not just my best twitter friend, she’s one of my best friends. Period.

I think I’m thisclose to getting sappy so I’ll just stop right there and say one more time for good measure: Happy Bloggiversary to SYTYCW and here’s to another year of laughs, fun and great stories ahead!

Happy Blogiversary, @gojeannie

From Tanja:

After these lovely words from Sue and Jeannie what else is there to say for me but a heartfelt Thank You for giving me a chance to be part of this blog for the last 2 years.

I really can't believe how far we've come during these last few years and that we're still doing this. I remember this, only slightly serious, Skype conversation about Sue starting a fic rec blog. I remember our first interview questions (only 10 or so then) I remember polls like "What fic would you like to see made into a movie), I remember hour long Skype chats DISCUSSING these silly polls. And now we have actual authors of actual books actually visiting the blog, reading the book reviews and letting us know. Talk about surreal.

And I also remember that I was a different person when I first joined the Twilight fandom and met all these people not too long before we started SYTYCW. I was young, naive, tried to escape RL online and English wasn't my first language. Being part of this has sure helped me grow as a person (sounds sappy, right?) I remember how afraid I was before my first author interview. I never liked being put into the spotlight (hence me never actually writing anything, just editing and telling people what to do) I remember telling Sue how I had a fic I wanted to talk about but was really unsure about contacting the author. What if she said no? And how on earth would I be able to do a write up that didn't sound like stupid ramblings? (This is thanks to my former German High School teacher that always told me I should just forget about creative writing b/c I just didn't get it). Well, long story short, the author agreed, the write up didn't suck and I felt awesome.

During all this time, I learnt stuff I never thought I need. If the need arises I could put together a crappy banner or gif or could photoshop someones face on another body (been there, done that) and I know enough code to keep this thing here running (Amazing what you can learn from google).

And I also learnt that I can always rely on these people here when I can't even rely on RL people.

So, thanks again Sue, Hannah, Jeannie and everyone else innvolved for always being here and making SYTYCW what it is today.

Here's to another 2 years (and longer of course)

Unfortunately, Hannah is currently in a trailer somewhere in Europe, probably trying not to harm any family members after 2 weeks together with them. But I'm pretty sure that, if she had internet connection, she also had something to say. 

Happy 2 year bloggiversary!