Tomorrow will be ten years since Holly Hart passed away. It still feels strange to me that Holly is gone. They say time heals all wounds but I’ve found that when people pass they leave a hole commensurate in size with the role they played in your life. That hole doesn’t ever go away, it just becomes part of the landscape - a monument in a sense. And as you traverse its circumference you feel the loss and hopefully remember the joy as well.
Ten years ago I said that I was not okay with it. I’m still not.
It also seems very strange to me that there are most likely a large number of new people here who didn’t have an opportunity to experience Holly’s kindness first hand. At least they can check her author page and read what she had to share. And for those that did know Holly, now is a good time to take a moment and reflect on how lucky we were to have known her.
If anyone has some good memories of Holly they'd like to share, please leave a comment. People we remember are never entirely gone.
Comments
A Good Friend
She kept me occupied when I needed it. I'll never forget her.
Gwen
She was ...
Very kind and caring to me.
Love, Andrea Lena
Someone Special
Holly put together the two BC picnics in Northern California. She was amazing.
Hugs for us all,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
She was the first editor of Bike
and she started the archive, which is still there though incomplete. She was a very kind and considerate and supportive person and I still miss the role she played in my writing life. God bless her.
Angharad
Wondeful Person
Super nice, and helpful when a tried a bit of writing..
Can't believe its 10 years,,
Skilled as well as kind
Holly was also a highly skilled editor. I exchanged a few emails with her, wondering whether and how she could improve my writing, and sent back a proposal, detailing how she usually worked.
I was astonished at the amount of work she intended to do, the extent of her efforts.
In the end we didn't work together. I wasn't ready. But it still afforded a pretext for some friendly back and forth.
It's odd how from such little contact, I got such a concrete sense of her as a person.
Thanks for your lovely tribute, Admiral.
hugs,
- Iolanthe
Holly did have her process
Holly had her process, her standard hand-outs, and her specific methods of tracking changes. I totally understand how that could be intimidating :D When she committed to a project it was a very real commitment.
But it was definitely worth it. I still have every note she ever sent me.
I remember...
I was out in SF for my grandfather's funeral and after having to put up with my family for a week, I met up with her at fisherman's wharf. We talked, did the golden gate and then went down to Chinatown for dinner with Shalimar. It was the best part of that whole trip for me. I had been working with her on a character in her stories. And I miss her.
Samirah M. Johnstone
Holly
I've been a stranger as of late. Holly edited a lot of my early stories. Hard to believe it's been ten years. Her memory will forever be immortalized in so many of the stories on this site.
Have a delightfully devious day,