HubNugget Welcome to Newcomers

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A sincere and warm welcome (and in my case a goodbye from the position of "Elite") to all the recent arrivals to HubPages. If you dream of writing as a profession or as a part time occupation, or even as a part time amateur, you have come to the right place to get a push-start on your dream, to be inspired and to be guided by like minded persons as yourself, persons who also have the writing bug. And perhaps in turn for you to offer your own inspiration and encouragement to your fellow Hubbers.

Like most of us here, you probably want to write that book that is said to reside in each of us. I can tell you that I have started mine and I have already prepared the list of the people I shall thank on one of the first inside pages of the book, for helping to set me off on my writing adventure. And I can also tell you now that besides thanking the close friends I have made here who have advised, guided and encouraged me to write, a large ‘thank you’ has already been allocated to HubPages for providing this platform from which I have been able to overcome my fears, doubts and insecurities about writing.

It is a statistical fact of life that the possibility of getting my book published is minuscule, but preparing the thanks in advance is something I feel to be a necessity, because without HubPages I would never have reached the stage of even trying to write it and I would always have been left with the unanswered question “Could I have written it”?

The reasons why my possibilities of getting published are limited, are not insignificant in number and are varied: I may not have sufficient talent, I may not write what others want to read, I may think more of my abilities than my abilities would warrant and so on. Having experimented on my fellow Hubbers over the last ten months, I am ready to face any or all of those potential embarrassments, knowing that through trial and error here I have reached my actual starting level as a writer and this is what I can offer. If after all my experiments I am not good enough, then I shall have to accept it and simply write for my own private pleasure.

You will come across some truly talented writers here who have not as yet been published, but whose time no doubt will come if there is any literary judgment or justice out there. You will also come across many GOOD PEOPLE who are truly worth getting to know. I shall give you some links to a miscellany of such persons in the hope that you will meet them and make friends with them, as I have.

You simply MUST meet Nellieanna, who writes poetry from a heart that is kind, generous and loving. You will also find poetry written from the kind hearts of epigramman, VioletSun and saddlerider1, as well as others. Of course most poets write from the heart, but the heart of some of them is full of anything but love and kindness, so you would do well to be careful.

For prose and further poetry, I would suggest that you follow the people I follow myself as a start, some of whom are the following, but in no particular sequence:

Habee (a woman I am shamelessly in love with), Mentalist acer (who is so much more clever than I, yet still puts up with me), Gypsy Willow (a Queen amongst her sex who should have been named Loyalty), Feline Prophet (a pearl of knowledge and kindness from whom you can learn as I have, if you want to learn how to write), Lee B (a person who loves literature and one of my first fans)' tonymac04 (full of knowledge and kindness), Shadesbreath (you can learn how to write from him, as I have), Pam Roberson (a huge talent and a kind heart), JamaGenee (she simply cannot hide her talent and her huge heart), drbj (intelligent, great humor and a great writer), akirchner (known as The Insane One, so find out for yourself why), Shalini Kagal, (a talented and kind person, a Goddess amongst women), msorensson (kindness personified and a Pearl amongst women), Christopher Price (a man of cutting wit at times and a truly friendly person), Winsome (a brilliant writer), Tatjana-Mihaela (a loyal and supportive friend, ACSutliff (too talented for her own good), Denise Handlon (always kind), jrsearam (always ready to join in the fun), Christoph Reilly (excellent writer). William F. Torpey (never short of wit), Zsuzsy Bee (amazing talent), cameciob (a clever and observant talent), James A Watkins (if you love history, he is the man for you), _cheryl_ (clever and gifted), Joy At Home (a mine of information), sunflowerbucky (a truly clever girl), glassvisage (kind and considerate), jcwin228 (generous to a fault), frogdropping (clever and captivating), Jane Bovary (can always come up with a kind word), christopheranton (never afraid to voice his opinion), wilderness (useful advice and cutting wit), Cris A (talent, kindness and generosity personified), dianacharles (always kind and supportive).

The above list of good people and good writers is random and it is not exhaustive by any means. I have, however, left out worthy writers because I could not think of them at the time of writing, or because they are the type that if you compliment them they simply ignore you for the reason that in their own minds praise is simply their due. I find that attitude annoying and I am sure you will too, so I shall not put you through that trial. As you discover good writers yourselves, please let the rest of the members here know, so that they will also judge for themselves.

You will also come across writers who shall never be published because they do not have what it takes; only they do not know it yet. I shall not give you any links to such writers for obvious reasons.

And you will come across writers whom commerce has claimed for her own and who have joined HubPages only in the hope of making a few dollars and who follow a certain strategy in that direction by daily publishing a number of hubs designed to draw prospective buyers. Again, I shall not give you a list.

You can learn from the first group by seeing how they write entertaining and engrossing stories and by studying their style. You can also rather painfully learn from the second group by noting what they do wrong and by avoiding their boring, infantile and/or aggressive style. And you might learn how to make some money from the third group, which is fine if you are not really interested in writing.

Now for the “goodbye” part. My friend Feline Prophet, who is much cleverer than I by far, has recently made a comment on one of my hubs to the effect that I should resign from the “Elites” and concentrate on writing my book. She may have been teasing, but I have realized that she is right. By being a member of the Elites I seem to be getting a lot of undeserved followers and out of courtesy I must at least visit them to see what and how they write. This takes up a lot of time, so I have decided to resign from the Elites in order to have less work to do and so concentrate on my own writing. I suspect that my absence will not spell irretrievable ruin to HubPages, though telling our Chairman of the disaster which has befallen the house of HubPages will be difficult and we may have to revive him with smelling salts.

I thank all those who offered me unwavering support almost from the first day I joined HubPages and who have stood by me through good and bad incidents. I will not name them in order not to embarrass them but they know who they are. Thank you.

Dimitris Mita

De Greek

Now each week one of the Elites supervises the collection of new hubs to be proposed for selection through voting. The purpose is to encourage newcomers with their writing and to introduce them to each other through the process. This is my last week as “Elite” to do this and so I give below this week's selection and I ask you to participate by voting.

Oh, and one final word. Please answer the following question if you would:

If one is stranded on a desert island with Paris Hilton, would you call this a mixed blessing or an unmitigated disaster?:-)

Good luck to all of you, I wish you a gratifying 2011 and I welcome you to the wonderful world of HubPages. Have a magnificent time here!