Quiet Mountain Essays

Birthday Musings ...

“It seems to me that those who dare to rebel in every age are those who make life possible - it is the rebels who extend the boundary of right, little by little.”
Natalie Barney, 1894

I thought it fitting to use a line from Natalie Barney, the 19th century writer who is the subject of this month's feature essay, to open my Birthday Musings.

It has been a long, hard evolutionary road that this website has traveled.  One year ago, the Quiet Mountain site consisted of two pages - an Introduction page and an Essay page.  Needless to say, I was stuck writing the essays.  I had a fine line to walk.  I fretted that if I wrote essays that seemed to be too forceful or radical, I would scare away women whose sensibilities were more middle-of-the-road.  Yet, I wanted to make sure that women whose politics and lifestyles were less ‘safe’ and 'conventional' also felt welcome visiting the QME site and, hopefully, eventually sharing their less conventional sensibilities with the rest of us through writing for the site.

I kept hoping that women were reading what I wrote, and understanding that their own unique voices and experiences were indeed welcome in these pages, too.  For a long time, I had no idea if this message was getting across.

Today I am very thrilled to say that judging from the correspondence I receive from readers, QME has a visiting readership that is indeed quite progressive-thinking, and varied both in lifestyle and vocation.  As are the featured contributors.  In short, a reading and writing tribe that looks to be shaping-up as a kind to which I would choose to belong, had I not essentially founded it.

By the way, in case you have ever wondered, the reason there is no blog page or other publishing space included on the QME site for reader’s letters and comments concerning the feature essays is because I want readers to become the featured writers.  If you like what you read here, or perhaps have a different perspective altogether - no fair simply writing a letter, roll up the old sleeves and try your hand at an essay!

One year ago, about twenty people checked out QME at its free geocities address and read the first featured essay.  This birthday month, approximately 200 visitors will peruse the Essay page, and 300-500 will stop at the home page, looking for various resources.  About 2,000 visitors to the home page this last year made over 6,500 page turns at the QME site.

For a relatively obscure and fairly specialized site, this represents quite a growth over its fledgling beginnings as a feminist hiccup on the World Wide Web.

My desire to build a site which showcases the voices of a variety of women from all over the globe finally inched its way into reality.  If I may stretch the geographical truth for a moment to make a point, recent featured writers have represented one U.S. coastal region (Maryland) to another (Hawaii).  This month’s featured writer lives in Croatia; next month’s feature essay was contributed by a student in Sweden.  More writings from women outside the U.S. are in line to be featured in the near future.

Women in different places - both in life and location - sharing their voices, talents, and experiences in a common space.

At present, I am scouring the countryside for appropriate grants that I can apply for on behalf of QME.  If anyone has a specific grant suggestion, please email me.  Although half my monthly maintenance headaches are due to dial-up issues, it would be nice to kiss goodbye the problematical free Yahoo web maintenance programs SiteBuilder and PageBuilder.  Most important, donations are needed to continue paying for QME’s space on the Internet.  I set up a Paypal account from which QME’s Yahoo Internet bill could be paid – if it had any donations going in!

Unless I get a "9 to 5" job (which is not likely), Year Two has to be the year that QME pays for itself – either through grants or donations, or preferably, a combination of both.  

This is one instance in which even the smallest donations would truly count.  If only a fraction of QME visitors donated a dollar or less to the site – just once - my personal budget could be relieved of the Internet address bill for an entire year!

I want to thank all the women (and men) who have contributed writing to QME – those already published and those still waiting to see their work featured.  I asked for participation, and I got it! Thank you, too, to the folks who continue to stop by QME to read these women’s voices, use the offered resources, and have passed the word along! This includes a "Thanks" to the several womyn's publications that added QME immediately to their feminist web listings.  Many people have enthusiastically helped in growing this site.

As for the opening quote by Natalie Barney - I wouldn’t call QME a righteous rebel site, however there are certainly some righteous rebels who are participating in it.  

So, I say : Here’s to women feeling good enough about themselves and a common space to want to share their special voices; and in their sharing, stretch the boundaries of geography, race, class, politics, and life!

Now if that’s not rebellin’ -  I don’t know what is!

Sincerely,
Suzanne Sunshower
Administrator@QuietMountainEssays.org

Donations to keep QME on the Web are greatly appreciated! Thanks for your support and participation!

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