Oh How I Miss You Blogfest

Today I'm participating in the "Oh, How I Miss You" Blogfest--hosted by  Alex J Cavanaugh , Mathew McNish, and Andrew Leon. This blogfest features the bloggers we miss the most--and the ones we would miss, were they to ever stop blogging. I believe our three hosts need to be mentioned, because I know they would be greatly missed by many people if they were ever to leave the blogging world.

As for myself, the first person I thought of when I sat down to write this post was my friend and critique partner, Zellie Blake. I think most of the people participating in this blogfest will write about bloggers who have gotten too busy to blog. Maybe they got bored with it. Or maybe they moved on because of problems with rude comments or too much spam or it got too time-consuming. There could be a million reasons someone might decide to quit blogging. I wish Zellie was one of those people. I wish she was just off doing something else. I wish I could tell her I love her and want her to come back. But I can't, because Zelllie died two years ago.

I met Zellie through a local critique group. She was...amazing. She had this great blog--ZELLIE BLAKE.  On her blog she had the normal stuff all us writers have. Her books, her current projects. But she also had whole other sections. Pictures of her rock climbing, of her trip to New Zealand, of her rappelling down a cliff side  The words across her website banner were: Be the Adventure you Dream." Zell lived by those words.

I only knew Zellie for about a year and a half. She got sick about ten months in. Neither of us are the type to jump full-fledged into a friendship, so it took us most of that ten months to bond. By the time we really felt like friends, Zellie was already dying of lung cancer--although none of us knew it at the time. (As a side-note, Zell never smoked. She never drank. She never took a single drug. It was just a freak thing)

There are certain people that burn through life, lighting up everything around them. Zell was one of those people and I count myself really blessed that I was able to have her in my life for even the short amount of time that I did.

Zellie never gave up. She spent her final days pursuing her dream of seeing her work in print. She died within hours of self-publishing the book she'd poured her heart into, Lighting Spliced.

Lightning Spliced is the story of a young girl, Analee, who suffers from a horrible genetic disorder. When a cure is found for Analeee's condition, she's thrilled--until she finds out that her cure comes with a horrifying side-effect that turns her into a powerful weapon in a war between patients like her and the genetics corporation that betrayed them.

To quote a friend of hers who reviewed the book:

Zellie's book is more than just a means to help fight against cancer (as others have said, all proceeds go to the American Cancer Society), it is a great read with a lot to say about the systems that are supposed to be in place to help us and how oftentimes they do exactly the opposite; Her own medical story only underscoring the point.

This bloghop was a great opportunity for me to talk about Zellie. If you are looking for an inspirational story, or an awesome read, please check out Zellie's website, HERE or purchase her book, LIGHTING SPLICED. All proceeds go to the American Cancer Society.


And...on a lighter note...the bloggers I would miss if they were to go...

Everyone!! I love all the blogs I follow. But, I will name just a few:

Literary Rambles I know I couldn't have put together my agent list without that site!! Cacey McCormick and her new partner, Natalie Aguirre, have put a huge amount of work into it and deserve serious props.

 Confessions of a Stuffed Olive is always great when I need a laugh.

Stina Lindenblatt  has awesome links every Friday.

Brenda Drake hosts a ton of amazing contests.

Deana Barnhart put together GUTGAA and is gearing up to do Pitch Wars.

  Alex Cavanaugh is the king of the blogfest and runs a seriously cool blog.

The Bookshelf Muse--without their help, I literally couldn't write.

I could go on all day, seriously. There are way too many to name and I'm just really glad to be a part of this community!! Thank you all and please...don't ever stop blogging!