I missed this news by a solid week, but it bears mentioning. Kevin Lawver has finally posted the entirety of the recently deceased Ficlets library online, and it is a thing of beauty. Beautiful not just in the fact that it contains thousands upon thousands of miniature stories, the bright flashes of life and insight from a myriad mixture of vessels of pure storytelling. It is also beautiful in the fact that that this sacred monument to the once thriving Ficlets community is even allowed to exist in the first place.

Kevin somehow convinced AOL to publish Ficlets stories under Creative Commons licensing rules, essentially giving Kevin a fantastic backdoor loophole to retrieve the Ficlets library just in case AOL decided to implode his creation. It turned out to be exactly what was needed, and now Ficlets lives on as Ficly. For the moment, it’s nothing more than the library. I located my works, so I know my content is safe. I had already downloaded my stories, but Kevin was able to save most everything, including the prequel and sequel connections between stories, the author bios, and even story comments. It’s fairly impressive the scope of the rescue operation he orchestrated, and I’m very pleased with the results.

In the meantime, I’ve signed up at Ficly to be informed of when the new site gains sentience. Until then, my writing will likely remain hidden in the wastelands of the internet. Google Docs. CoG writer’s guild. I might have another go at Protagonize, as well. But applause and champagne all around for Lawver and his ilk. I look forward to seeing what Ficly becomes, and what it has to offer us former Ficlet-eers.