Jon burst on to the blog scene with a glittery commenting style that was to be Heather’s inspiration for WIBIJ. He made a splash, disarming staid bloggers with frank enthusiasm and an ability to be everywhere at once. Jon has traveled the blogosphere far and wide, charming fellow writers and creating a dedicated following at his blog, Jon’s life. If Heather’s blog is The Lion King where animals (read bloggers) of all sorts meet at the watering hole, then Jon’s blog is The Jungle Book, where the same animals sing and dance to entertain Mogli (read Jon). He also delivers, providing things like a series on The Snowflake Method where he takes apart his manuscript displaying process at every turn, allowing the rest of us to grow right along with him.
As the monkeys of The Jungle Book sing, “We want to be like you-ooo-ooo.”
Jon is an artist and doesn’t limit his sparkling just to comments, he has spread his aesthetic across this blogspot, creating the buttons and banners that provide our decor here. He shares his artistic wealth; win a contest on his blog, take a medal from a race, use a button in support of WIBIJ. Every community needs its bling, and we have it in Jon.
When Jon isn’t reading, out running the puppies, or supplying you with web art, he writes about mylar balloons, lemonade stands, rival secret societies, the coming-of-age of gay teens, and the sequence of hues in the color spectrum. He writes in all genres; YA, MG, and PBs. He has shiny new ideas regularly and his normal writerly impatience makes him forget on an equally regular basis that he gets things done. Just check out his blog for proof.
Now watch as he takes our show by storm with great feats of commenting acumen!!
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Tina, your Master of Ceremonies (as written by Heather)
What to say about Tina? She has a way with words. A good thing, too, since she's a writer. Her blog is entitled, Watch Me Practice (because I get better when I practice). For me, that says it all. Her willingness to learn craft is second only to her desire to reach out and help others. She is an inspiration, and a solid support partner, in all areas of the writing process.
She brought the W.I.B.I.J. game to a whole new level by discovering the magic of the recap. She has flare, and she's not afraid to use it! Her flare is a thoughtful flare. In fact, she's thoughtful in all she does, and actively strives for "good thought hygiene". Something all writers should master. She has also coined the genre "Pioneerpunk". Expect big things from Tina. She delivers!
When she's not raising two school aged children, cooking fantastic meals featuring onions, getting bendy in yoga, and cracking the whip whenever I (or Jon) happen to get off track, she writes YA and MG. Right now, she is revamping a YA inspired by her work in a shelter. And writing a MG adventure story about superheroes saving polar bears. She lives a block away from the library. (Imagine that!) Tina says, "Most of the time I know I have the perfect life, sometimes I forget."
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Heather, your Ring Master (as written by Jon)
Heather's first comment on my blog defined the blogosphere as a close-knit community some days and as a vast void on others. It's funny because ever since she came into my life, I have felt part of a community, one that stems from her blog, Edited to Within an Inch of my Life. Heather's blog has become known as the place cool people get interviewed in her Friday Features: Journeys Towards Publication and Beyond. As a blogger, Heather has become an inspiration with her profound comments on any number of topics. She is a gracious host and maintains a productive environment at her blog. Is this an insert metaphor here moment? I think so. Like, okay, so a simile, the Serengeti, Heather's blog invites authors, both aspiring and published, to the water cooler. It's a cool place to hang and chat up writing and the unrelated. Giraffes discussing their approach to revising with crocodiles. Zebras comparing stripes with tigers. It's definitely not a dog-eat-dog world at Heathers.
It is Heather who came up with the idea for W.I.B.I.J.?!, a fun'n'games-driven community where writers of all types may convene. At first, the idea was a joke, left by Heather in a comment thread at my blog. Still new to blogging and only having known Heather for a few weeks, I got a crazy notion to push for the idea. I hung out at Edited to Within an Inch of my Life and saw that Heather had already created a community, so I knew she had it in her to make W.I.B.I.J.?! a success. She brought Tina on board Lennon-McCartney style and we've been running with the idea since. Under Heather's leadership, our trio has been working to shrink the vast void of blogosphere down to one more little oasis from which writerly types can navigate.
Heather, the writer, in between parenting and the Wii, has been working on Middle Grade and Young Adult projects alike, as well as what she calls the cuspy, grey area between the two genres. She is currently revising a highly anticipated, among her friends, manuscript titled FALLEN STAR. Heather's one-liner: "When a boy has no one left to turn to, and a star just won't accept her place in the universe, two worlds collide with a big bang."
