Happy Doper Milestones thread

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
453

Congratulations to everyone!

I haven’t looked in on this thread for quite a while, but I actually have something to share!

Two and a half years ago, I came to Belleville and got a job in a factory. The job inspired a story. A friend from school connected me to an awesome editor, Jackie Brown of Jackie Brown Books in Oshawa.

I sent Jackie a draft of my story and she sent back an amazing report that opened my eyes to what the story could become. So I am now working on a Young Adult novel called “Parts: an Industrial Fantasy” that I hope will be published this year.

But that’s not the main news! Jackie runs a writing group. She corralled nineteen writers (including me) into each contributing a story to a compilation.

The compilation is called “Nineteen Tales of COVID-19”. The group not only wrote the stories, but we assembled the book and designed the cover and got everything ready for printing*.

We learned about marketing and contracts and social media exposure. We are now working on spreading the word informally as well as contacting regular media. This really has been like a college course, the one I didn’t know I needed. It has hugely improved my creative confidence.

“Nineteen Tales of COVID-19” is now available as an ebook on Kobo Books in Canada, and as an ebook and paper book on Amazon in Canada, the US, the UK, and India! We are working on further distribution, including to the traditional bookshops.

There is a printed copy of the book on the table beside my bed.

And we are having a launch party online on the 28th. :slight_smile:

*Okay, I designed the cover and assembled the book. But I didn’t do the proofreading or manage the whole thing (thank god).

454

Awesome, Sunspace! :slight_smile:

455

Bomb Bay Doors graduates from high school this May and will be attending his first-choice college this fall. How in the hell did this happen? :flushed:

456

This isn’t for me but for my sister, who is over 65, has severe heart issues, yet has continued to work as a doctor and see patients during the pandemic, including patients with active covid 19.

My sister got her second does of covid vaccine yesterday.

I am VERY relieved because I don’t think she’d survive a round with the virus, yet she continues to work. I feel better knowing she’s more protected.

457

As I fellow writer I truly understand how huge this is. I did an anthology project once called Rock Apocalypse. We created a post-apocalyptic world and then each of us wrote a short story in that shared universe. I’m quite certain I’m the only one who contributed a post-apocalyptic romance. Keep doing your thing! You’re gonna shine!

458

Thank you! I didn’t know you wrote; I’d like to read your compilation!

459

Criminy! Is that the little kid who showed up with you at the mini-Dopefest in Philadelphia nine years ago?

460

Yup. Same kid, just a lot bigger and just as much of a pain in the butt. Just in a good way.

461

Lil Garg just born last week, I sit here freshly simul-barfpeed upon.

462

Sounds worthy of a great big CONGRATULATIONS!

And good luck keeping up with the laundry. :slight_smile:

463

Not nearly as impressive as the other milestones, but I just passed my 20 year anniversary with this board.

464

Awww, congrats! Have you gotten any sleep yet? :wink:

Nice! I’ve only been around (here) for 16.5 years. :slight_smile:

465

Good to hear how Dopers have been !

Me, I celebrate my 20-th SDMB anniversary.

Also, I divorced my husband amicably in 2017. I dated around for a bit, then found an amazing man on Tinder, of all places. He lives in Belgium, and me in the Netherlands, but we live only 12 miles apart. We’ve been together almost two years now and we have plans to move in together, at least 50 % of the time. I co-parent my teenage son for 50% so there’s some logistics there. Thankfully, my son and my SO’s two teenage daughters get along.
More importantly, the fact that my SO lives in another country with different laws/opportunities from the Netherlands, has opened up all sorts of possibilities. One of those is that Belgium makes it easier to earn a living as a private psychotherapist, then the Netherlands. Backed by my Belgian guy, I decided to quit my good, but very stressful job, this January, and start a psychologist practice from his home.

466

This is wonderful news! Happy 20th. My husband started his own psychology practice last year. It has taken him a while to get his footing, but it makes a difference not having to fork over a huge chunk of his earnings.

And love is in the air. I’m so happy for you.

467

Thank you Spice Weasel! I hope your husband’s practice goes very well.

468

Thanks for the update, Maastricht. Glad to hear your good news, and also glad to see you posting again. You’ve been one of the posters “missing in action” since the great discourse change-over last year.

469

Our son, “Dweezil”, just (almost) graduated from college this weekend. I say “almost” because he has to retake one class this summer, but since he was just one class away, they let him walk at graduation anyway.

This is happy news for anyone - but when you consider the fact that age 3, we were told it was unlikely that our autistic child would make it through high school, it’s pretty impressive. And the last few weeks of the school year were pretty rough on him.

But we had the most perfect weather possible - no rain for several days, so the outdoor venue wasn’t muddy. They had things set up so that each family (student could only have 2 guests) sat together in groups of 3 chairs, far enough from other groups to maintain distancing. We couldn’t really see when it was his time to walk across the stage but friends who watched it online could see him.

470

Big congratulations to Dweezil and to his very supportive family as well. Well Done Everyone!

471

Congrats to Dweezil and to @Maastricht, and Senor Weasel!

472

Bomb Bay Doors graduated high school today. If I recall correctly, he was the first Doper baby. Now he’s off to college in August.

Where did all the time go?