Honored

The move from St. Pete back to Ruskin is almost complete. In the distant past, when a phase of my life came to a close, I'd get all sentimental and weepy, reminiscing endlessly through rose-colored glasses and conveniently forgetting most of the less-than-peachy reasons said phase came to an end in the first place.

Tonight, though, I'm not weepy in the slightest--in fact, I'm thrilled to bits, having been notified earlier today that I'd won the Florida Netroots award for Best Writer.

There are some wonderful people I must thank.

It was Melissa at Shakesville (née Shakespeare's Sister) who first encouraged me to write online, for her popular blog, in this exciting new medium that puts the journal in journalism. And it was Ezra Klein (watch him Thursdays on MSNBC, on Chris Matthews' Hardball) who pushed me further, e-mailing me one day, out of the blue, to compliment my writing and ask why on Earth didn't I get with the program and install an RSS feed if I wanted to move past the year 2004; eventually, I became one of Ezra's weekend contributors. And shortly after Kenneth Quinnell spearheaded the impressive blog and wiki for the Florida Progressive Coalition and invited me to join, Michael Hussey brought me on board his Tampa blog, Pushing Rope (Michael, along with Stogie, was responsible for my nomination).

All these dedicated, talented, and of course progressive writers saw something I hadn't yet noticed, which is to say, they recognized a fellow word-wonk with outrage and concern to spare, and they gave me forum and no small amount of support. I'm profoundly grateful to them, and what's more, I'm honestly, giddily hopeful these days--for a very Blue 2008, and especially for the realization of our dreams for peace and progress.

Finally, an enormous Thank You must go out to my readers. Unlike its eponymous author, litbrit is a very young (as opposed to just rather young) blog, and my readership is small, still. But what an intensely wise and witty bunch this is! I hope I can continue to live up to my award and that you'll always feel free to contact me with suggestions or ideas; that TRex will continue to make me shriek with laughter in the middle of the night; that Minstrel Boy will keep raising the bar while managing to not make the rest of us look too terribly lazy; that oddjob will always know the story behind, well, everything and send me links to boot; that C in DC and Lisa in Baltimore will keep engaging my brain; that Darkblack will never run out of clever double entendres and great FZ clips; that jacqueline and Stephen will share their soulful thoughts with me forever; and most of all, that everyone will keep reading. And keep on keeping on.

Thank you, my friends. This little house would most certainly not rock without you, and I adore you all.

XXX
Deborah