Special Announcement

/ Rachael Ritchey

Hey all! Merry Christmas Eve to you. We hope this year has been one full of writing challenges and successes where you’ve grown and learned more about yourself as a writer, improved your skills, and been encouraged by fellow writers.

Gary has taken a leave of absence from BB, and he is much missed, but he may be back in the future. I know I hold out hope! Anyway, we’ve all felt his absence, but we wish him well in all his wonderful endeavors.

Special Update

The special announcement is that A. E. Branson has stepped up to take a role here at BB with keeping us organized and on track. I’m so excited to have the extra pair of eyes on things around here and am looking forward to A. E.’s contributions to the coming year.

So, with that, please share some love with A. E. for being willing to step up!

If you didn’t get a chance to learn some about our awesome writerly teammate, check out A. E.’s Spotlight

AND

Have a happy New Year!

Sincerely,

Rachael

55 thoughts on “Special Announcement”

  1. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Rachael, and to all our BB buddies! And thank you – I could never fill Gary’s shoes, but just glad to be able to help out. Hope all the holidays are joyous and looking forward to what everybody crafts in the upcoming year!

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  2. That’s wonderful news. I am well aware how tricky it can be fitting everything in to a busy life (witness my “missed months” and those last-minute entries of mine), and having someone else to help carry the load makes a huge difference. It amazes me how long I’ve been contributing to #BlogBattle without paying much heed to all the work that goes on in the background, so thank you to Gary and Rachael, and welcome AE. 🙂

    I would promise to try to write my stories more promptly in the coming year, but let’s be realistic :). We’re past the shortest day, the sheep need moving to another field, the tomatoes and cucumbers will need planting soon and then there will be lambing and…

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    • Calm before the spring storm Mark. You’re right about time too. BB has been running for years thanks to Rachael. Who, I might add, has had to suffer my absence for quite some time. That said I did send over a new word list just in case it was needed. I’ll check later this week and see if there’s prompt ready for January and if not will set it up. Good luck with the prep for planting and lambing no doubt 😊

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      • Thanks, Gary. Back in the era of the day-job, life was more regular and had “spare time” but now our lives revolve around livestock who need things when they need them, rather than waiting for the weekend. 🙂

        Part of the idea of the downsizing/pseudo-retirement was to have more time to write. That has not worked out quite as planned.

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        • So true… we took in 3 rescue kittens and life now revolves around them. As you say, need when they need.

          I do think you’ve done the right thing though. Pseudo retirement has to be better than full on. Keeps the purpose going. Planned it may not have been but if you hadn’t done it where would you be now? Bored in a pandemic or multiple books? Have to say full on retirement would scare me… one reason I have taken on pub cellars as a sideline

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          • Three kittens… OK… 🙂
            We decided that we would never let the cats outnumber us again, only to have a string of them move into the barn and then into the house until we had four. Much of the last year was dominated by making sure that one of them got the best summer possible as it seemed highly likely that it would be his last. We must have got something right because he gave every indication that he was doing better in spite of his steadily declining health, which I attribute to him being a very happy cat. (He was also the biggest character and it’s noticeable that when I look back over cat-related items on my blog, he got more written about him than the rest put together. 🙂 )

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    • It’s a wonderful contribution to have you participate in BB! I sometimes can’t believe we’ve been at this as long as we have. I do love the community and cannot imagine us not having this place to gather, writerly challenge, read, and encourage each other. Thanks for making it a great place to be! 🙂 Happy new year, Mark!

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  3. Thanks for the mention Rachael. And kudos Abe for agreeing to help out. It’s been a very odd year where writing and blogging have taken a huge step backwards. One reason was realising my WIP was becoming very large. I’ve spent some time reorganising things and streamlining social media. I don’t normally do new year resolutions but one I will make is to visit this community much more. I really appreciate the people and, dare I say, friends here.

    Apologies for the absence Rachael. I know it’s been tough for you keeping on top of things. If you need the next word list I have actually got that as I made it last year haha

    Merry Christmas all

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  4. RE: 1st paragraph – yes, yes, and yes! I’m really thankful to the BBprompt team for the prompts, inspiration, and support this year. I had A BLAST writing my series in 2021.

    RE: 2nd paragraph – I hope Gary is alright. I was wondering why I haven’t seen him around lately. He always had valuable feedback to share. I hope he is well and do tell him that selfishly, we hope he returns soon. Selflessly, we understand he needs to be away for now.

    I’m glad to see AE become an official part of the team. I felt like AE has always been a part of it, so I was actually surprised recently to see that was not the case.

    Merry Christmas to all!

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