Awww, you guys are the best...

[bluestocking79]

I got my Portus postcard in the mail today! To my absolute delight, it's been signed by many of my friends, favorite authors and all-around awesome lj people! What a fabulous treat! I adore it, and I assure you that it's the dearest souvenir I could ever hope to have, because it makes me think of all of you. I keep staring at it, marveling at

Comments

[hogwarts_91]

Your post inspired me - I am new to LJ and completely overwhelmed by everything, but I now have hope that after a year it might appear to look like I know what I'm doing. Your journal is amazing, and I've read a few of your drabbles; I never would have guessed you'd been doing this for such a short time!

I had never even heard of fanfiction and stumbled across it a couple months ago. Clicked on SS/HG ships thinking "eieww" but fell in love. Did I say 'fell in love'? More like 'became completely obsessed'!! LOL

Just wanted to say Happy Anniversary and thanks for inspirings rookies like me!

[bluestocking79]

Oh, wow, thank you! ~blushes like a mad, blushy thing~ I'm so glad you enjoyed the journal and the drabbles! You're very kind. You're certainly welcome to friend if you're interested (I friend back)--but please, do what you feel!

I learned a lot in a year, and I'm confident that you will as well. I was intimidated at first, but I found that the more I made an effort to participate, the more I enjoyed myself and the more interesting, insightful people I met. I started by joining a few communities and participating in discussions or drabble challenges. I also really recommend 'friending frenzies' or friending memes, where you fill out a little template about yourself and your likes, and then people with common interests (in the ship you read, the comm you're on, whatever) can see you and get to know you and make friends with you. We have one of those going on at portus_envy right now, if you're interested! Nobody bites, I promise. :-) There are a lot of SS/HG fans there, too

[hogwarts_91]

Aww...thanks for your awesome reply and the words of encouragement!

*runs off to friend you*
*hopes you'll friend back*

I can't say enough positive things about my experience on LJ so far; everyone has been so wonderfully supportive and friendly! I will definitely check out the friending memes and I'm nervously contemplating participating in a drabble challenge. (Funny, the word 'drabble' wasn't even in my vocabulary a month ago and now I find I'm using it daily!)

Thanks again for your kindness!

[bluestocking79]

You're more than welcome, and I've friended you back.

I'm very glad you're enjoying LJ so far! I'm always impressed by how friendly and supportive people are towards one another. I hope the drabble challenge goes well for you! I found them quite addictive once I started writing them. I started at snape100 and then branched out to grangersnape100.

Since you mentioned that you enjoy SS/HG and are fairly new to fanfiction, let me recommend two sites that I think you might enjoy a lot. You'll definitely find a lot of great material for reading there, anyway! The first is quiz_sshg, which is run by mollyssister and morethansirius. Every week, they put together a quiz featuring 10-12 SS/HG stories grouped around a common theme (magical portraits, music, hermione to the rescue, etc.), where people can try to match the story excerpts with the titles and authors. It's great, though, because even if you haven't read all the stories, each week provides you with links and a set of recs to a new group of stories.

The other place I'd really recommend is the SS/HG Exchange:sshg_exchange. You might not feel