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I had doubts. I went away for a weekend in early August, taking time off from work, home, fanfic and HEROES. And it was much needed. HEROES has gone through quite a bit these past few months. Perhaps it's just the summer, but it's kind of disheartening to see something like this fall apart.
It'd be one thing if this was mine, all mine. And, early on, I guess it was. But, now, well, look at it. I have other editors, almost 30 groups covered, and I'm not writing any of the articles anymore. A great issue comes out month after month and all I do is play Editor, HTML and post it. So, I felt a need to keep up with it, or, at least, not let it die.
I came back from my vacation ready to quit. Serious. The reigns would have been handed to my editors and the whole fall back plan would have kicked in. I checked my e-mail first though.
And I'm glad I did.
Jason, I've been meaning to tell you that I think you're doing an excellent job with HEROES. It's very well done and always interesting. I really like the focus on our motivations for writing - the archive vs. continuity piece was very well done. What's really nice is that there's not a lot of sniping or chest thumping that goes on - it's very positive and very comprehensive and very open, it's a great place to exchange ideas and feelings and put the spotlight on different parts of the fanfic world. Hopefully this will make all of the various fanfic sites better. There's a lot of great work out there and that's the important thing, after all, isn't it? That we all get better as writers, regardless of which site the stories are on? As my focus shifts more and more away from writing fanfic and back to my own work, I find I like reading about the other (non-MV1, that is) sites more than I have in the past. I'll always keep some kind of toe in the fanfic waters (especially MV1, of course) and it's for that reason that I'm thrilled that Heroes exists. (Without Heroes I never would have taken a look at the Future Shock site, for instance, and that's a fantastic looking site. Very sharp design.) Again, excellent job. Looking forward to the next issue.
Every now and then, a letter trickles in telling you you're doing a good job. A reaffirmation of your hopes and dreams. You get these writing fanfic, editing a group, even doing HEROES.
I was wondering if anyone cared, if this was helping anyone, was anyone using HEROES, would anyone miss HEROES, this letter told me everything was okay.
Mark Bousquet told me I was doing a good job. Someone told me I was doing a good job. Not an issue to issue thing, an overall thing. I get plenty of the issue to issue mail. "Great issue!" and whatnot. Articles were liked, interviews were liked, someone got reviewed, I mispelled a name.
Maybe it was just the timing of this letter, coming at me right when I was about to give up, but it hit me and kept me going.
Thanks, Mark, and thanks to everyone out there who checks out HEROES each month, who uses its resources, who loves fanfic and the people in it. Thanks for being here. Thanks for reading.
Jason Kenney
September 2, 1999
