I love writing for Writer Dad. It’s tremendous fun. Though the whirlpool of words is a wonder, the real benefit of the blog is the people who’ve entered my life.
Every so often, a comment leaves the basement behind and leaks into an email… then nine… soon a hundred. Bloggers I heart are the bloggers with whom I have running dialogue. These are the ladies and gentleman who, were I in their city, I couldn’t imagine bread not being broken.
David Wright
Anyone who has been with reading Writer Dad longer than a week will need no introduction, but I’ll send out a sentence anyway. David Wright, alter ego Blogger Dad, is the first blogger I hearted. I stole his name, he stole my theme, and now here we are an armload of weeks later. Our collaboration is constant. I don’t know how many days have passed without at least a single email, but they were few and likely sad.
Eric Hamm
About a dozen fallen leaves more than a month after I started Writer Dad, I got a note in my inbox. It was from a daily reader, regular commenter, and first time emailer. He liked the site and wanted to know if there was anything he could do to help make it better; the Blogopolis version of asking if I’d like to share his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Over the course of a weekend, he added the 40 to my WD. He’s the reason everything around here looks so shiny. Like Dave, Eric became my instant collaborator, with a big project in the works.
Dave Fowler
I’m nut sure exactly when I became friends with Dave Fowler. Truth is, I didn’t realize that he wasn’t Dave Wright (Blogger Dad) for the longest time. One day, after a particularly long sequence of emails, I realized something was wrong. “This guy used to be a reporter?” I thought. He can’t even spell. At that moment I realized I’d been talking to a different Dave, one who lived on the other side of the pond where they don’t love the letter Z and, by all accounts, feast on some truly dreadful dishes. It was an a-ha moment; a thousand cheerios! and blimeys! bloomed into clarity. But not really. Actually, Dave’s been here since the beginning, reading Writer Dad since words were bouncing against the walls of a mostly empty blog. My favorite thing about Dave is that he is always willing to step into a situation with articulate authority to express what he feels is right. Sometimes with humor, other times with carefully crafted words, but always with honor.
Tim Brownson
Tim and I officially met in the midst of sticks and stones that were barely missing the bones of our backs. In the aftermath of the scuffle, we found ourselves with a sharpened respect for the other. Tim is a life coach, which has to be the single best job in the world. Not only to you get to tell people what to do, they pay you handsomely to do it. When I try to tell people what to do, not only do they NOT give me money, they immediately change the subject. Tim lays it down well. His posts are a wonderful mix of words and photos, piling together to prove a point.
Oktober 5
Oktober 5 for a while was a bit of a mystery. We didn’t know his name, and still don’t know the meaning behind his moniker. This matters not at all. Few things hold as much gravity as the wisdom in our words, and in that, Oktober has no shortage. His posts are peerless, each one perfectly pithy. I’ve encountered no one else online who brandishes brevity as he. Sometimes, there are no words, only a photograph worth a throw’s more than a thousand. Beautiful.
Jamie Simmerman
Jamie Simmerman should be the sweetheart of Blogopolis. She is kind, funny, and always pays toward the interest of others. She is also honest, and even if she thinks you’re awesome, is never shy to tell you how she thinks you could be even awesomer. Except that Jamie would never use a word like awesomer. She runs Blue Duck Copy, a Christian company, specializing in SEO content creation and blog management. Jamie knows her stuff, and clarified more basic writing tools for me in a single, rather brief email, than any teacher I’ve ever had. Here’s what Jamie said about the semi-colon.
Semicolons, (this thing ; ) are used similar to an equals sign (this thing =). Both halves say the same thing, in different ways. Doing it right makes editors do this thing: : )
Crystal clear.
