Another off for New Adventures
Posted by JeffsFort

I've been on the fence about this for a little while. Not so much what to post about this as I was considering "if" to post this. Why?

Back in 2004, we had been contacted by a concerned author/reader regarding a free forum we were using that was laced with ads and crap to gather and talk to a small handful of fairly well-known authors of the time. The "community" was considered back then, some form of author support. LOL! That concerned author/reader purchased a parent domain and the software to build an internally supported forum to move the conversation to and gifted it to us. You see the name August Christopher come up for us, this is why. That was the official birth of what we now know as the Fort Family. We all came from small beginnings, the oldest of us were developed in a relatively young internet and needed to change with the times. Our forum is gone now but because of the interconnectivity of the modern internet, the forum became obsolete. So now we focus on hosting the sites that keep online authors' work available to the world. Are we alone in this task, heck no.

On September 9, Dude (IRL - Vale Mike Wengert) founder of the online community "AwesomeDude" that is as old as we are, passed away from a massive heart attack at the age of 79 years old. Just shy of his 80th birthday :(

All of our communities face issues that unless managed could knock us off the internet. This is why there are so few of the "Old Guard" (as ACFan put it to me earlier) left out there. The death of the founding member is bad, when that founding member was also the person managing all the bills and accounts, it is more than a speed bump, it's a mountain to overcome. When August Christopher passed, we were in danger of losing all that had been built so, we have seen that mountain, and feel for the AwesomeDude community.

If you have time, please reach out to them and offer them some positive energy and support. Not only are they facing a difficult battle but they are mourning the loss of a close friend. That mourning has to take a back seat when dealing with trying to save their creation and I can say from experience, that part sucks! Our community was only a year old when we dealt with this loss and fought to get our hands on the wheel of what felt like an out-of-control bus. Their community was established almost 20 years ago, around the same time our community became something we could also call a community. So it is more the size of a freight train compared to the bus we needed to learn how to drive.

Even though over the years all these "competing" communities had fences between themselves and others of its kind, I've always considered us in competition with no one. Just another group or gathering supporting independent authors and offering a hand to get them exposure. That's all any of these sites ever offered. Dude was one of those people who felt the same way, and his absence will be felt by us all.

RIP Dude and best wishes to the community you created and those within.

https://awesomedude.com/

Dear Authors and Readers,

It is that time of year again. Yes, it is time for our Annual Pledge Drive to keep the lights on and our Fort Family of sites servers running.

So please give us a helping hand to keep our sites alive. No donation is too big or too small, all donations are greatly accepted and appreciated.

Remember none of our sites have ads or Premium Fees!

Please help us keep our founder August Christopher's dream alive.

To Donate just click on the Donate Button in the left side panel on any site.

Thank you for your help over the years,

The Fort Family Admins

Let me just begin by letting each and every last one of you guys know that I love you, and I always wish you the best. It's important to say it as often as possible. You never know when it might be for the last time.

We lost another cherished member of our Shack family this past weekend. Unfortunately, our friend 'ATrueFan passed away just a day or two ago, and he will be greatly missed by us all. I wish you peace eternal, dude. Thank you for being a part of our lives, and for sharing your soul with us. Love you lots.

Ok, I'm just keeping this short for now. A new chapter of the vampire saga, "Gone From Daylight" has been posted today. You can find it at the link below, so let me know what you think whenever you get a chance. K?

(Gone From Daylight: Blood Ties @ The GFD BloodBank)

Ebook versions of this series, with all of the added scenes and extras included, are available now in the Comicality Ebook section. (https://imagine-magazine.org/store/comicality/) Grab your copies today, and look for the next big book to be released soon. That one will be a doozy.

Also, major thanks to those of you who have really been helping me out during my time of struggle with your donations to the https://paypal.me/Comsie account. I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and so does my mom. You're kindness is definitely appreciated!

I've gotta run. But you'll be hearing from me soon. I'll seezya then.

Take care. And stay beautiful.

= = WORDS NOT MINE, YET MINE = =

"But they TOLD me...a man should be faithful! And walk when not able! And FIGHT to the end, but I'm only human..." -Michael Jackson

It's been a while, hasn't it?

That's right, it looks like we will be adding to the archives with the personal scriptures of a new blood who goes by the name of Silver Firestorm! He has earned the trust of Comicality himself so we expect big things from this young one. From what I've read so far, he has something very special to share with us and it appears the elders approve.

So sit down and turn off the lights and join us as we gather for the reading. Be sure to reach out to him to let him know what you think, I've made sure his contact info is available. Raiders, steer clear!