"People come and go so quickly here." - Dorothy Gale

Having written for this site and its predecessors for two decades, I've noticed that people have been consistently pulling their stories for any number of reasons.

I pulled my stories from Fictionmania because I grew weary of the I-rated stories and XXX stories that were posted next to mine. In my opinion many of their stories push the porn envelope too much for me to be part of the effort.

Unfortunately, I also pulled my stories from BC for about six months because someone sent me an email telling me that I had driven her to consider suicide. I'd never communicated with her other than her reading my stories. She said that the love expressed in my stories was in stark contrast to what was happening between her and her family.

Love and acceptance are the main themes of many of my stories. I never dreamed those themes would cause anyone so much pain. In the end, after several months, I re-posted my stories -- having decided that her pain wasn't caused by my stories, but by the guilt and shame she felt.

We are a community of wounded doves. Many of us wear our hearts on our sleeves looking for hard answers. Many of us have terribly exposed nerve endings. Many put our hopes into BC solving our internal conflicts.

Some of our personal goals and demands are unreasonable.

Some of our perspectives are highly personal. They may be perfectly valid and still not in line with others who consider BC to be THEIR home.

It's not so much that we've had recent author turnover, as it is that it's practically a miracle that this place endures.

Erin is a human being. She has her foibles like everyone else, but she has sound touchstones which she lays out as rules.

1.) Keep things friendly. Most of us can count their close friends in RL on our fingers. BC isn't a place to court enemies. REAL friendships are forged here.

2.) Give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Communicating electronically is extremely hard. We count so much on visual clues and inflection when we talk to one another. Combine that limitation on true communication with our guilt and shame and we're all individually a tinderbox hoping no one strikes a match.

3.) It's not about you. The transgender is so much about internalizing our thoughts and actions. Everything seems to be about us. Our trans-dar is on 24/7. However -- within the BC community we must suddenly realize that what the other person posts is 99% about them and probably only remotely not about us.

I struggle with these rules. I have this ongoing "battle" with another author on this site. From what I can tell we are very similar people who should understand each other, yet at times it seems we're oil and water. People tell me she's a sweetheart and I have no reason to believe otherwise. Yet . . .. I only mention this as an example of how hard it is to communicate with each other here.

We can't thank Erin enough for her leadership. Without it BC would be Fictionmania. The people who run that site are good people who try their hardest, it's just that Erin has a better formula and is a "gooder" person.

Yes . . . people come and go -- but Erin hasn't. From time to time she's taken a time out for several hours. A person of lesser personal ethics would have long ago thrown in the towel and then devoted her talents to something else. She's the best writer on this site and could be highly successful doing a Sandy Thomas type of thing.

Has she made missteps? Of course. She's quite human. There are many things I would have done differently. Some right and some wrong. Being a good leader is based more on the willingness to monitor and adjust than it is on being right all the time.

So how can we feel assured that she won't leave?

Simple:

1.) Follow the rules.

2.) Offer and give what support we can. This includes, but is not limited to financial support.

3.) Express your appreciation.

4.) Enjoy BC and do what you can to help it grow. It is her baby and she thrives on its success.