Kaz-D is doing a "Best of 2009" competition, and I'm quite interested in participating. What I need is help from YOU, my lovely watchers. What have I written this year that has really spoken to you? It has to be something that I have written within the year of 2009. I'd really love some suggestions!

I have it narrowed down to these prose items, which I have catalogued based on my own research of most favorited items and based on personal interest.

babylon
show me the way back (to the garden)
"the last mohican"
shirt tucked in, shoes untied
swallowed (in the purring of her engines)

Anyone have any suggestions of my best work this year? I'm entering a little "Best of 2009" competition, and I would love some suggestions!

Oh gosh, okay, before I get into this big mushy thing...I just want to thank all of you. Anyone who has ever been here, or read my work or just commented or contributed something to my greater well-being. You've all made it possible for me to reach nine-thousand pageviews, a number that five years ago (when I started this account) I could not even begin to fathom. And it may not seem like much to some of you...but it's huge to a writer on DA, and it's especially huge to me.

This is due to many, many people. People like who have been here since the very beginning, and who has been a steadfast and loyal comrade in the crazy, hazy world of writing. Thanks for always saying "This works. This doesn't work. MESS WITH THE SYNTAX, ALREADY!"

A special thank you to whose latest interest in my work has sparked such surprising and appreciated attention. Your featuring of my work has been an invaluable tribute to my writing life. Thank you.

To random friends and fellow writers whose names fail me (there's too many of you) like who always wrote "Well, why did you do that?" and frustrated me beyond ALL belief in the best of ways because no one had ever. asked. me. that. People like who come in and out of my life at random times and always, always can brighten my day.

And especially to for encouraging me to give so much more of myself as a writer, for saying "god, will you STOP WRITING ABOUT JUDAS" (she would *never* say that ) and "this isn't your best work," for teaching me the power of italics, for laughing with me, for laughing AT me, for ripping things apart and piecing them back together in her own special way (my poetry will never again be safe), for teaching me how to feel and cry and be young and *remember.* Thanks kid. Maybe someday I'll grow up to be like you

And thanks to all of you who are here, and who have stayed here and read these words because I couldn't keep doing it every day without you. You're not an audience -- you're a community of critics and friends and wonderful, beautiful abilities, and I can only hope that anything of mine that you've read has had some impact on you.

Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.

Oh gosh, okay, before I get into this big mushy thing...I just want to thank all of you. Anyone who has ever been here, or read my work or just commented or contributed something to my greater well-being. You've all made it possible for me to reach nine-thousand pageviews, a number that five years ago (when I started this account) I could not even begin to fathom. And it may not seem like much to some of you...but it's huge to a writer on DA, and it's especially huge to me.

This is due to many, many people. People like who have been here since the very beginning, and who has been a steadfast and loyal comrade in the crazy, hazy world of writing. Thanks for always saying "This works. This doesn't work. MESS WITH THE SYNTAX, ALREADY!"

A special thank you to whose latest interest in my work has sparked such surprising and appreciated attention. Your featuring of my work has been an invaluable tribute to my writing life. Thank you.

To random friends and fellow writers whose names fail me (there's too many of you) like who always wrote "Well, why did you do that?" and frustrated me beyond ALL belief in the best of ways because no one had ever. asked. me. that. People like who come in and out of my life at random times and always, always can brighten my day.

And especially to for encouraging me to give so much more of myself as a writer, for saying "god, will you STOP WRITING ABOUT JUDAS" (she would *never* say that ) and "this isn't your best work," for teaching me the power of italics, for laughing with me, for laughing AT me, for ripping things apart and piecing them back together in her own special way (my poetry will never again be safe), for teaching me how to feel and cry and be young and *remember.* Thanks kid. Maybe someday I'll grow up to be like you

And thanks to all of you who are here, and who have stayed here and read these words because I couldn't keep doing it every day without you. You're not an audience -- you're a community of critics and friends and wonderful, beautiful abilities, and I can only hope that anything of mine that you've read has had some impact on you.

Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.

So, somewhere in my wanderings I have somehow accrued more than eight-thousand pageviews! That's such an amazing thing to me, considering I remember the early days I spent below the 100 mark. Now pageviews aren't as important to me as the quality of my work, and 8000 pageviews after four years may mean nothing; it may just be based on the inevitable accumulation as opposed to people appreciating my writings, or my work having the scope to reach them, but I am still eternally grateful. My life would not be the same without my work, and each and every one of you is as important to my success as anything I will ever do.

I appreciate your steadfastness, your loyalty, and that you have weathered with me through such bouts of darkness. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.