Julie is Gone!

Julie is Gone but Never To Be Forgotten. We were expecting this news and thought that we were ready for it, but the reality of it finally happening is still hard.

Julie succumbed on March 11th to the cancer that made her last days full of misery. My hope is that such a terrible ending made her soul stronger. It does not seem right that too much sun on her toe resulted in the melanoma that spread and killed her.

Her life had a huge impact on so many people. There are over 5000 individual authors who registered and published more than 20000 stories on StoryStar. She improved the lives of each of those authors, as well as the lives of the untold number of anonymous readers who visited just to read stories without registering.

Julie put her heart and soul, not to mention pocketbook, into creating and operating StoryStar. She confided in me that it took her more than a few years just to get the website created before she launched it back in 2010. Since then, she spent part of every day reading, commenting on, evaluating and rewarding top stories with the Story of the Day awards.

Take a moment to stop and think about that. What have you done every day for fifteen years? She did all of this not for profit or personal gain, but for the love of literature. She wanted to create a space where aspiring writers could have their stories published and where anyone could immerse themselves for a few minutes each day in a realm of imagination.

As one of those aspiring authors, I will be forever grateful to Julie for giving so wholeheartedly of her time so that I could blossom. Her inspiration to create a haven for all of us, along with her dedication to the idea of StoryStar will never be forgotten. Her life touched so many others in a very positive way and will continue to do so as StoryStar lives on in her memory.