CELEBRATION/MILESTONE POST
Celebrating Another Milestone Yet Again: 900 Stories
One day after hitting 4,000 followers, I’ve now published my 900th story
It feels like just yesterday when I posted my last celebration post. Oh, wait, it actually was yesterday…Well, I didn’t expect to hit two major milestones two days in a row. Overnight on March 1, I crossed the 4,000-follower threshold for the first time. After writing a whopping five stories yesterday, I ended the day with 898 stories. Since I’ve been working hard at completing Keeley Schroder’s writing challenge responses daily, that meant that my next story after that would be my 900th published story since I started on Medium back in August 2021.
It’s been such a journey. I could never have imagined turning an unpaid online hobby into something that almost feels like a second chance at a career. Despite living in Western New York in the United States of America and also being a part of the Medium Partner Program, I’ve never once monetized any of my stories. Yeah, I know, many people have already told me that I should and that I could.
I just don’t really want to at this point. I know that my stories have amassed nearly 500,000-lifetime views on this platform and I’m just happy to have the exposure. It’s much better than if I would’ve just started as an unknown writing my own blog website lost in the millions of others online doing the same thing. At least, I changed up my routine and I’m no longer playing video games 12–18 hours a day.
Plus, I’ve gotten to meet so many great people. I’ve met writers and new friends from all over the globe. It’s been a major blessing for me during the pandemic since I can no longer work and have had pretty limited interaction with my friends and family since the pandemic started. One of those limiting factors was being so far away from my home state of California being on the opposite coast but also the fears of the ongoing threat of COVID-19.
I have already contracted the virus three times and the most recent spell knocked me and my partner back for months. I still feel the ongoing effects of long COVID to this day. This last year has also been pretty eventful, good or bad, for us.
We lost our old home, the Ford F-350 box truck that we had converted into our first tiny home when the engine exploded while we were trying to get up a hill. We were stranded in a Buffalo parking lot for over a month, including during the major blizzard that killed dozens of people with record snow, cold, and wind.
We survived that Christmas weekend and got our generator to continue working after but we sure did have a scare. Then we were forced to move all of our stuff into our new RV before we were ready. We’ve now been in our new RV for nearly two months and are still in Western New York. We needed to set up a fundraiser back in December as funds got really tight during that whole ordeal.
We were met with a generous, loving, and caring community on Medium. I don’t know what we would’ve done without the generosity and support of the friends that I met here. I have so many people to thank but that can wait until the end. I want to start by saying thank you again to all of the readers, editors, and writers that I work with on a daily basis across all of the publications that I edit for (Digital Global Traveler, The Press Box, The Random Nerdiness Collective, The Community Building Movement, Internationale, Badform, and New Writers Welcome).
As I did with yesterday’s post, I will highlight more writers that I enjoy to highlight some of the great work here on Medium. The tag section of this one might be a little bigger than the last one only because the audience has grown and I always feel like I’m leaving someone out if I don’t mention them.
I swear I don’t do these massive tags to get you to read my story. I only want to say thank you if you ever see me put you in one of these. I feel fortunate to have been blessed with interacting with so many brilliant and lovely people. I mean, I don’t get paid for these reads, after all. What real incentive do I even have to spam people? I really hate when that’s done to me, isn’t that right, Susie Kearley? Well, anyway, I’ll get back to you in the features section. I want to just mention our friend, Mike Lewis, again as he travels and blogs about it.
Featured Stories
See, what did I say, Susie Kearley?
Dan Carlson | Meandering Naturist
I want to share with you briefly the stats from my top 10 most viewed Medium stories of all time. Hopefully, these screenshots can either inspire you or inform you of some of the topics that have been successful for me over my writing career.
Before I go to my tags, you can either contact me through any of my publications or you can comment below if you’re interested in joining in any capacity (writer or editor). I’m now about to regret my life choices by making a page that will be so unloadable, you’ll be screaming at your computer for minutes. I remember when you brought that up to me one of the last times I did one of these, TzeLin Sam.
Starting with my editors, Mary Louisa Cappelli, MFA, JD, PhD, Sandra Jasionowska, Bumpyjonas - he/him, Sieran Lane, Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles, B A Little, and of course JF Danskin with the honorable mention as he recently had to leave our team to fulfill other obligations.
Then I continue to mention some of the great editors that I’ve worked alongside in the past. Christine Schoenwald, KiKi Walter, Christopher Robin, Scot Butwell, Debra Groves Harman, MEd, Mike Butler, Scott Younkin, Janet Meisel, Preeti Ramachandran, Bernice P., Ira Robinson, Anjali Joshi, Tamil, Kit Desjacques, kt lee, Gaurav Jain, Suzanne Pisano, Marketa Zvelebil, Sofia Chen, JoAnn Ryan, Anne Bonfert, Adrienne Beaumont, and Jillian Amatt - Artistic Voyages
And some of the ones I get to work with now. Robert Ralph, Sally Prag, Drashti Shroff, Andrey Pilipets, Mona S Gable, Linda Ng, Erica Marie, Marilyn Glover, and Lucy Socha over at What is Love to You, a publication I haven’t worked at but is part of Robert’s family of publications with New Writers Welcome. While I’m at it, I’d also like to thank Gabby Gabs who I haven’t had a chance to talk to in a while.
I’m also going to mention many editors that I work with frequently in my writing, Katie Michaelson, Dr. Gabriella Korosi, Darren Weir, Hollie Petit, Ph.D., Toni the Talker, James Beaufait, Jason Provencio, Dr Mehmet Yildiz, Gareth Willey, Dr John Frederick Rose, Gary L Ellis, Adrienne Parkhurst, Julie Gaeta, the — ShortClipWriter, Barb Dalton, Ginger Cook, Smillew Rahcuef, Michael Burg, MD (Satire Sommelier), Kristine Laco, Jennifer McDougall, and Brett Jenae Tomlin.
Others that I’ve worked with in the past have included Celtic Chameleon, Sahil Patel, James Finn, and Logan Silkwood
I forgive everyone else that I’m forgetting as I write this. There are so many talented editors and writers to keep in my head all at once but I appreciate all of you.
The Keeley challenge community: AMEastern, Autistic Widower (“AJ”), Karen Schwartz, Adrienne Beaumont, Bernie Pullen, NancyO, Robert G. Longpré — [he/him] — Canadian métis, Katie Michaelson, Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles, Brett Jenae Tomlin, redkitewrites, Richard Bailey, Marilyn Flower, Keeley Schroder, Laure Dorsemaine, Debika Kumari, Michelle Jimerson Morris, Celia McKinley, Pamela Oglesby, Julie KingGood, Charisse Tyson, Amy Frances, Julia A. Keirns, Ravyne Hawke, Toni the Talker, Cathy Cremer, Pat Romito LaPointe, Harry Hogg, Tina, Kayla Tackett, C Cap1, Anna Itzel Cazita, K. Joseph, Brandon Ellrich, Misty Rae, Karen Hoffman, and Deb Palmer.
Now, I’m going to be tasked with trying to mention as many people as I can in the finale of this community celebration. If you want this story to load and you haven’t seen your name yet and figured that it’s below, you could check or just skip to the end and comment. I’ve also included the other celebration post from yesterday for 4,000 followers below.
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