I came to Steemit more as a prolific musician, looking for a particular musician someone had posted up without his permission ... the community wisely did not reward that post, of course ... but that is how I found Steemit, and then started sharing my own music as I could.

However, I was writing every day on different projects anyhow, and had not thought to take that writing every day to Steem until I stumbled across my first freewrite prompt from @mariannewest and @freewritehouse, in May last year. "Window," as it happened. That thing was HUGELY rewarded, and that is how I got noticed by @ocd, who helped me to minnow status! Whole different story, but, none of that would have happened without @mariannewest and @freewritehouse!

I started writing a few times a week, then every day. Then came the "Nunchucks" freewrite. Had no clue what to do with that at first... then I remembered a detective I made up 20 years ago ... Ironwood Hamilton ... he ended up controlling an entire riot with the help of an old teacher in a Catholic school -- you should have seen how that nun chucks eggs to stop a fight.

Captain Hamilton ended up taking on all the "What do I do with this?" prompts as clues, and the world around him started to grow ... I eventually placed him in the county I made up in Virginia for some Civil-War era stories I had just finished at that time: Lofton County, but in modern-day Virginia.

Then, I started looking at the headlines coming through in the last three years -- from Virginia for real, and elsewhere ... the racial issues from the Civil War are still alive and well ... and Captain Hamilton had to start dealing with that, since he was in modern-day Virginia. When the prompts fell right, he did so.

Then, in July, @freewritehouse made me its author of the week, and I decided to come up with extra content in its honor! This is where something happened that never would have happened otherwise ... I know that I could write for five minutes every day, but I had never tried to write a novel in two weeks! How prolific was I, really -- could I do it? Would it be good enough to be read, commented on -- could I build an audience for it?

Yes to ALL OF IT. Without @freewritehouse, I never would have found out how powerful and prolific an author I really am. Because, see, I would never had done THIS...

THIS ...

Or THIS ...

Or THIS, which I received for The Field of Blood because @mariannewest encouraged me to do #nanowrimo ...

That all happened between July and November 30, 2019, because of @mariannewest and the @freewritehouse -- and, in addition, because I was able to swing Black, White, and RED All Over to Amazon, I have also been able to convert work on Steem to USD, if you will, because Steemians and others have actually gone and bought it to read at one sitting instead of clicking through here on Steemit (although you can read the first draft still; the posts are on the blockchain forever!)

All of this because of the daily work @mariannewest and the @freewritehouse do daily in providing writing prompts and building a community of supportive writers and readers. In addition, my daily writing does well enough now so that I am periodically able to help Steemians in real need with my earnings. This is true even though I have never worked with anything but a bear market: because I daily (well, six days a week and twice on Sundays for now) am producing quality work, the rewards stay to the point that I have enough to share with others since there is little point in cashing out in the U.S.

It infuriates me to think that some thoughtless person wishes to disrupt all the good that is being done by and with @mariannewest and the @freewritehouse. I could not write this four days ago because I was so angry. I content myself in saying two things: NO ONE WILL EVER BE ABLE TO DESTROY OR DENY THE GOOD THAT YOU HAVE DONE AND ARE DOING, @mariannewest and @freewritehouse -- the blockchain and our hearts know the truth forever! Secondly, should I win any portion of the 75 shares, @ntowl, please split them between @mariannewest and the @freewritehouse -- it is the LEAST I can do for all they have done for me!