Who is the new face at iRez, you may ask. Allow me a few words about myself. I promise these to be the first and last of the sort!
I’m Lizzie Gudkov, a former educator who became a writer. My world is made of words that branch out intertwined to grow into stories.
It was not always this easy to explain who I am, though. I spent many years secretly jotting down thoughts on scattered bits of paper I often called snapshots of life, created with the flow of sentences and the catchy sound of vowels and consonants. At the same time, I struggled with a dramatic lack of time to write, juggling an extremely demanding job as a teacher and major changes in my life.
I loved being a teacher. However, life does play a few tricks on us when we least expect it, and suddenly I had a lot of time on my hands.
One day, I stumbled upon Second Life, a virtual world with vast potential, daring places and fascinating people. What an amazing source of inspiration for my writing!
It was this virtual world that pushed me out of my safe cocoon as an anonymous writer. I started taking part in many writing events both inworld and off-world, some extraordinary, others somewhat bizarre, I must admit. Luckily enough all contributed to enrich my stories and I survived the first steps of an increasing complexity in my writing reality!
I decided to create a blog about a year ago that became my headquarters, where I push myself beyond my comfort zone. Do you have a style, you might ask, a genre? I enjoy writing about everything. I often, still today, consider myself a photographer using words instead of images. My short-fiction frequently captures a fraction of reality, a moment suspended in time, as does my poetry. I now tackle writing not as the product of a short-lived sparkle of inspiration, but as a demanding job, excruciating at times (but don’t tell anyone!), yet so much fun.
I must say I am thrilled to join the team at iRez (thank you to Vaneeesa for trusting me)! Throughout my online life of almost two decades, I have had several blogs, yet it is the first time I face the challenge of writing at a home where other writers live as well!
“What’s the plan?” a very special person in my life would ask.
Well, the plan is to embark with you on an expedition into virtual places where fictional stories will unfold. I’ll take you into the lives of many characters that populate my imagination. I must warn you, though. They are rough, belligerent, twisted and perverse, although they are human, funny and even generous at times, a few of them, at least!
The apparent solitude of the writer transforms itself progressively into a multitude of possibilities! So, I’ll sit here crafting the branches of stories that may surprise you, shock you, move you and make you drift into other realities. I hope you enjoy them.
And now it’s time, the journey begins!
Agnes Sharple
Botgirl Questi
Bumblebee (Wendz Tempest)
Canary Beck
Carissa Arthurine Somerset
Eva Marie
Fuschia Nightfire
George Coghill
Ironyca Lee
Jeremy Owen Turner
Joseph DeLappe
Kathleen Cool
Katie Vizenor
Krista Hoefle
Kristine Schomaker
Lizzie Gudkov
Aero Bigboots
RMarie Beedit
Marmaduke Arado
Isabella Medici
Nadya Tolokonnikova
Nathan Shafer
Pixel Reanimator
Ravanel Griffon
Scarlett Luv
Strawberry Singh
Tabitha Raincloud
Toni Tyldesley
Trilby Minotaur
Vanessa Blaylock
Xue Faith
Yordie Sands
Hi Lizzie! Welcome to iRez!
I love, “secretly jotting down thoughts on scattered bits of paper I often called snapshots of life” — as one of those Jedi dudes once said, “Remember: Your focus determines your reality,” and I do think that those bits of paper really do construct an existence, a perspective, an identity in this universe of atoms, in this world of ideas.
A lot of times we just go through life in “default mode” and we think apples are apples and multiple choice tests are multiple choice tests, but once you start breaking through the walls of the boxes you were in, “breaking the 4th wall” as Botgirl likes to say, I think it’s an amazing existence of possibilities limited only by your ability to conceive them. People like Betty Tureaud or Ellsworth Kelly or Martha Graham or Liz Solo do a pretty amazing job of conceiving things in purely visual or purely kinesthetic ways, but for most of us mere mortals, I think words are the way that we form our reality.
Can’t wait to experience more of your words!
Oh, and Psst… don’t forget to drop by Gravatar and stick a photo there so your little circle up top will be even cooler! 🙂
http://en.gravatar.com/lizziegudkov
Hi Xue!
Thank you for words 🙂
I so agree with you when you say that “words are the way we form our reality”. I must admit that my writing is very holistic in the sense that it is made of words, creating an image and sounding in a certain way, almost like a film/photo with its own soundtrack, but everything made of words. And having the possibility to create other worlds, characters, lives is extraordinay. It’s an amazing material, language!
I have changed my Gravatar pic! Yay! I’ll get a nicer pic when my “official photographer” (hint, hint to the photographer!) gets back from vacation!!
Lizzie’s response to me – we’re trackin down how it got lost:
—-
Hi Xue!
Thank you for words
I so agree with you when you say that “words are the way we form our
reality”. I must admit that my writing is very holistic in the sense
that it is made of words, creating an image and sounding in a certain
way, almost like a film/photo with its own soundtrack, but everything
made of words. And having the possibility to create other worlds,
characters, lives is extraordinay. It’s an amazing material, language!
I have changed my Gravatar pic! Yay! I’ll get a nicer pic when my
“official photographer” (hint, hint to the photographer!) gets back from
vacation!!
Oh Lizzie!! Thank you for sharing a little bit more about your life. Each little piece of your story I hear makes me that much more fascinated. I think you are on the forefront of a new style of writing that takes advantage of everything the digital age offers us. I continue to watch and learn, and continue to think that someday I’ll hurl myself into this genre you have mastered so well. Welcome to iRez, a playground invented by the inimitable Vaneeeeeesa Blaylock. Hugs & luv, Yordie
Yordie, thank you! This is a fascinating adventure and what a thrill to share this playground with you and all the great writers at iRez! I have always believed that everything happens for a reason. When I had to stop working, I was devastated. But look! Something new and so wonderful is now the road ahead! And if you’d like to travel that road with me, I’m here! Hugs and luv, Lizzie 🙂
Lizzie’s response to Yordie – we’re trackin down how it got lost:
—-
Yordie, thank you! This is a fascinating adventure and what a thrill to
share this playground with you and all the great writers at iRez! I have
always believed that everything happens for a reason. When I had to
stop working, I was devastated. But look! Something new and so wonderful
is now the road ahead! And if you’d like to travel that road with me,
I’m here! Hugs and luv, Lizzie
Congrats Lizzie!! You are the best, a wonderful writer and an amazing human being, I am lucky to be able to read your work and to be able to share some time with you. Keep on going, you will go far!! L U you beautiful you!!
Oh, you’ve read it! Yay! Thank you for your words, London. You know how special you are and how much I am grateful for your continuous encouragement, not to mention believing in me unconditionally. Remember that poetry quest in Second Life a few years ago? One poem a day for 30 days? Midnight, I was exhausted. Me: ok, no poem today… You: what? oh yes, I’ll drag you to the sim to write the poem, come on, come on. And that’s how it all started! Basically, it’s all your fault! 😉
Lizzie’s response to London – we’re trackin down how it got lost:
—-
Oh, you’ve read it! Yay! Thank you for your words, London. You know how
special you are and how much I am grateful for your continuous
encouragement, not to mention believing in me unconditionally. Remember
that poetry quest in Second Life a few years ago? One poem a day for 30
days? Midnight, I was exhausted. Me: ok, no poem today… You: what? oh
yes, I’ll drag you to the sim to write the poem, come on, come on. And
that’s how it all started! Basically, it’s all your fault!
Apologies for not replying individually to you. WordPress doesn’t like me, so it “ate” my comments to each of your posts. Anyways, thank you for your words!
uggh – sorry Lizzie! I think it’s something with Disqus – we’re working on it. Your comments actually are in our wordpress files, but Disqus isn’t showing them for some reason. But THIS one is all shiny and new… so maybe it likes you now — comment away and let us know if there’s any further trouble… and we’ll report back when we hear from Disqus…
We’re tracking this down now – it may be related to the multiple (too many) ways you can post comments, some of which are “IN” Disqus airspace… and some are outside that “airspace”
My current guess is that it’s plugin overlap: Disqus does a really nice job of taking over comments, it’s a lot nicer than the native WP.org comment system and it also tracks Twitter posts which can often be more active about your post than comments on the post itself…
And then there’s “Jetpack” by Automattic, which also like to sink hooks into your comments. They’re cool too, but it might be platform overlap. Anyway, we’re hunting down what happened and will simplify accordingly from there.
Best bet — just come right HERE, to the bottom of the post, and type in the box — can’t (as far as I know) go wrong! 🙂
Thanks everyone for your patience and for any info on “what you did and then what did or didn’t happen”, that you can contribute.
Happy Holidays!