This website is separated.

I don't personally feel there is a better way to get my point across than to state it at the very beginning. I won't play around with fancy language or timid attacks at other authors, hell, I won't even cite a source, I'll just throw it out into the open.

THIS WEBSITE IS SEPERATED.

We are authors. Each and every one of us, at heart, can be the most opinionated, self-centered, egotistical, son of a bitch that we know, and we are not afraid to share it. No matter who may be listening, our respective G-Ds, or whatever it is we choose to or not to believe in, gave us each a need to share our beliefs, no matter who is listening, or what they think.

We have a power, a unique power, to turn words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, and paragraphs into literature that we hope one day can go down in the ages as something intense, something we can be proud of, and something that someone admires.

We are amongst greatness. Mark Twain, J.D. Salinger, William Shakespeare, Stephen King, George Orwell, and Jane Austin, just to name a few. We are greatness, SnoDragon, Princesskasskzn, Sammie I. Jenns, Last Dance, Raptor7435, and mind you those are just a few of the names I randomly pulled off the "Just In" page of this website.

Our trade is not new. People do not need to adjust what they have become accustomed to in order to accept our art. However, many times, in an individual sense, they need to do just that. In fact, part of being what we are, is hoping that what we have put down in writing has changed at least one person's original beliefs, or at least made them consider our own.

And it is for this reason we have been granted a domain that will keep our works, free of charge, in the public eye, so that all people have an opportunity to come and view what we are so proud to create.

It is this much that we have in common.

And it is this much that keeps us apart.

This website is separated.

I could sit here for the next half hour and type phrases such as: "flaming is bad, flaming is wrong" and "FanFiction belongs here and Original Ficition belongs there", but this is no longer the argument I am trying to make.

Fan Fiction has its place, it is neither Fiction Press nor Fan Fiction dot com

Original Fiction has its place as well, and it too is neither of those sites

We are authors, we write Fiction, Non-fiction, poetry, essays, songs, plays, and the like. In its true essence, only we can dictate where our work belongs.

Let me remind you thus far, that I am not arguing over what does or does not belong on this website, and if you cannot see this for what it is, I am asking that you stop reading now.

Our work belongs published. Our work belongs where it can be read by everyone and anyone. Our work belongs displayed on a shelf at Borders, or stores of similar renown next to the likes of the authors I previously mentioned.

But that reality cannot be achieved if we cannot band together. If we cannot rely on each other as pillars of strength, truth, and confidence, then we crumble as a whole. The literary community is no different, in my mind, than any sports team, political system, or business conglomerate ever created; unless there is support on the whole, than nothing can ever be achieved.

This brings me back to my original point. This website is separated. When I joined this site with my original pen name, which I still write under quite often, I felt very welcomed by the community of authors that this site had to offer, and they were in great support of my work, and I of theirs, and the environment was fluid, friendly, and productive. However, the events of late practically speak for themselves.

We have people arguing left and right over issues that overall we just wish were dead and gone, flames have begun to replace constructive criticism to the point where most authors on this site can no longer tell the difference, and finally people, like myself, are having to create new pen names simply because it has become to dangerous an environment to speak ones mind openly anymore (trust me, I am not the only one).

So allow me to take this opportunity to rebuild many a burnt bridge, and welcome the authors of Fiction Press back to an all too familiar, but lost, territory.

Authors of the world, welcome.

Welcome to what I hope can return to a developing community of world authors. Authors with amazing and brilliant ideas, strong opinions, and the skills necessary to fight for what they believe in simply by writing with their hearts. Welcome to a website of authors who understand one another, not that necessarily agree with each other, but know what it means to assist, as opposed to destroy, one another in creating and continuously updating one of the greatest tomes of fictional literature in the world.

Welcome to this beautiful gelatinous pool of raw, unbridled creativity. Creativity that is freshly molded and awaiting the final touches that only can be suggested in a manner most productive, because we know, as authors, that all to often is our creativity shattered by the immeasurable cruelty of "flaming".

But most of all…

Welcome home.

I've done my part, I've brought you back, shown you where we were, where we've been, and where, as authors and as a society, we are headed.

Now it's your turn, your turn to help turn Fiction Press back into what it was always meant to be: a safe, accepting, and strong domain for authors.

This website is separated.

But it doesn't have to stay that way.

Sincerely,

A Very Disappointed Author