Not sure if this is already posted, but I thought I'd let everyone know that mammamaia, once a prominent member here, has passed away. this is a dedication thread for her. I didn't interact much with her on these forums but i was in contact with her via e-mail a while back. I found her to be a very nice, hearty woman who was more than willing to lend a hand to those learning the craft of writing. moreover, she was intellectually sharper than the edge of a guillotine - a true master when it came to the written word. I've heard that maia left these forums at some point - some people thought she was arrogant. personally, i found her good-humored bluntness refreshing, but to each their own. she did have a high opinion of her abilities, but unlike many people, her high-opinion was warranted. at any rate, she's left a sizable legacy here, and on other writing forums. i can't even begin to think of how many people she helped for FREE via e-mail. patience of a saint, if you ask me, considering a lot of the work she helped fine-tune was of a very low level. that eagerness to help people is a rare quality. it's certainly one i don't have. her website containing her body of work seems to be down. this is a shame, as mammamaia was an accomplished poet and writer. However, she DID send me some (not all) of her poetry collections in an e-mail attachment a long time ago, which i luckily still have. If anyone wants to have a gander at these gorgeous poems, send me a PM with your e-mail address, and i'll forward them on to you. anyway, here's one of my favorite maia poems. perhaps not appropriate for a dedication thread, but i'm fond of the disillusioned tone. Ingrates we were healthy once... we lived in the sun and drank the rain, earth fed us sweet corn and golden grain, fruit from her vines and each burgeoning tree... but never can we go back again to when we and our home were well... we’ve turned Paradise into Hell. we were wealthy once... we possessed pure souls and loving hearts, life led us to fair, far distant parts, rich, fertile fields and the primeval sea... but poor now are we who’ve sullied this and miss what was ours before... we’ve turned nurturer into whore. she is stealthy now... she hides what is left and gives us none for she is bereft of all we “won,” found, stole, destroyed on her maternal breast... so, to save the rest, she’ll be discreet, secrete what’s left, a grim war wage... we’ve turned earth’s mother love into rage.
Oh wow. This is sad to hear. I definitely learned a lot from her over the years. Despite any differences, she gave some very good advice. How did you hear about this by the way?
Yes, her friend @Cogito let us know about this last year on this thread, if you want to read what people had to say: https://www.writingforums.org/threads/say-something-nice-about-somebody.140400/page-3#post-1375243
Thanks for the link, wasn't aware of this! I found out from another writer's sight. I can't believe she's dead. Writer's forums won't be the same without her.
She helped me immensely over e-mail over ten years ago. I still remember some of her line edits/writing advice, have been writing since, and am currently experiencing a lot of success. I randomly thought of her, googled her email and saw that the last post on her blog was years ago and then came here to see if there was a post about her death. Alas, there was. I hope she was surrounded by love when she passed.
Sorry for bringing this thread up again. I always meant to say that mammamaia was the first member to give me a critique on my first workshop story here and that I appreciated her advice.
