Where Do We Go From Here?

Dear Laurel, Manu, fellow authors and my Literotica readers,

The end of another year is drawing to a close. And this year is not just the end of another year, but of an era it seems. If the rumors are true and 2014 was the final year for Survivor, then I feel that the words of country singer Tim McGraw says it best...

The ending of an era and the turning of a page

Now it's time to focus in on where I go from here.

And for me, I want to say a special thank you to Manu and Laurel for creating a quality site like Literotica where it is not just porn or even erotica but literature as well. I am sure you did not become millionaires from this. This place may be as much as labor of love as a business even. And I am sure that you do not need a bunch of whiny, author divas making it even worse. So thank you from the bottom of my heart for doing what you do.

Thanks too to Lauren Hynde, CrimsonMaiden and Boxlicker101 for moderating what I am sure must be one of the most contentious forums on Literotica. And for updating scoreboards and answers questions. And all the other things you do. Take a well-deserved break.

To my fellow authors, even the ones I don't like, thank you for the friendly (and sometimes not so friendly) competition. You made me a better writer and person. Friend or foe. I wish you all the best and as I say...may the best man (wo-man) win.

To all my lovely readers, thank you for your comments...good and bad, you have made me a better storyteller. And to those special ones of you that have taken the time to message me...I have saved everyone (well maybe not the nasty anonymous ones). This is a labor of love for me...and those messages are the only paycheck I get for my work here at Literotica. Keep them coming please.

So now that I have gotten those out of the ways (oh wait...is there a big burly bouncer waiting off stage like at the Oscars?) I want to expound a bit on that ending of an era and turning of a page...

Survivor has been the most amazing thing for me as a writer and a person. Five years ago, I returned to my life long love of writing. I started at a fetish site but there were stories I wanted to write beyond just that fetish. Then someone there told me about Literotica. I created an account and begin to post stories here.

I needed my writing then...to help me focus. I had a sick child and was fighting with all my heart to save my marriage. But when I sat at the keyboard all that floated away and I could be anyone I wanted to be and do anything I wanted to do. Okay, those first hundred stories...ninety percent sucked and I cringe when I read them today. But all of us have to learn somewhere, somehow. Even Picasso must have finger painted once or twice...and I bet they'd be worth big bucks today if his mama had saved them.

Then I discovered the Survivor Contest and for a goals driven person it was nirvana. The idea of competing and writing stories in all thirty-five categories was challenging...and trust me writing in some of those categories was a real challenge (my apologies to anyone who has ever read one of my Loving Wives or Incest/Taboo stories). But it stretched me as a writer and challenged me as a person to face my own prejudices. And by the end of that first year, I had developed writing as a daily habit.

Five years on, I still need it. I still need that release that comes from sitting at my keyboard and pouring out my soul. I still feel like I won the lottery when I open a message from someone who was touched by one of my stories. I am proud and humbled by the whole process. And when my world is running mad, my daughter's health is not good and I cannot think my way out of a paper bag it seems that my goddess or fate or angels or something always sends one of those messages to remind me that what I do is not just about writing sex and porn...it is about the human condition. And hell yes, sex is a big part of that, folks.

I might have never placed first but let me tell you I won that damned contest every single time I participated. So one more time...thank you all...oh, and where do we go from here...onwards and upwards because after all we are Survivors.

Goddess bless and keep us all,

Tara