I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with a worthy memory for this post.
Alas, all I have is my own memories, so they will have to do. :)

I went back and actually found my original invitation to the com.
It was February 3rd 2007, and it was from the inimitable snegurochka_lee, inviting me to become a member of our kink!fic community. My favorite line in the email? Our members post on a schedule, so that we ensure each month has a regular stream of kinky fic and art coming at the readers.
Haha!

Anyway, as I was pretty vanilla at the time, I was a bit nervous, but it seemed like a fun community, and I knew several people who wrote for it, so I said yes. I even posted about it here.

Fast forward nine years (!!!) and here I am, still writing for the com.
DD has certainly educated me over the years *g* as well as entertained me, and I've met some fabulous fandom friends through this community.

So, long live Daily Deviant! *raises glass* Here's to ten more years!

Best email I ever sent, getting you on board! ;)

♥

Aww! *blushes*
♥

So many fandom friends have come from here!

I was actually invited to join when DD first started but thanks to having a tiny baby, I didn't get the invitation until too late, so I shamelessly begged to join a little bit later and was graciously allowed to. I know I've lurked for years, but it's still my favourite community ever <3

I think it was ravenna_c_tan who first told me about DD. I was still new to writing and reading non-RPG HP fic in 2011, and was looking for good fic to read. I fell in love with the comm immediately, and I jumped right in as a Watcher for KK in 2011.

I was thrilled when I was invited to write in 2013, and have loved being a part of this community, both reading and writing. The prompts are amazing, and the creativity that every writer and artist here has for interpreting those prompts absolutely blows me away. I've been introduced to new ideas, read pairings that I never considered.

This place is amazing, a wealth of wonderful work. I hope we'll be back again in another decade, celebrating the 20th birthday. And kudos to everyone here, to every writer, artist, and reader. You are all amazing.

Searching back through my email, I was both surprised and oddly comforted to see that I got my DD invitation as far back as 31st January, 2009! Gosh, life has changed quite a lot between then and now, but it has been so nice to have fandom in general and DD in particular as a common thread that runs through it all.

It has certainly been an education! I have pushed my boundaries as a writer no end in trying to fulfil the monthly themes (some of which I had never previously conceived of as being a possible kink, before they came up on the lists! *g*). Sometimes the characters just pop into being, jumping up and down to have their deviant desires fulfilled - and sometimes I find I really have to work at it, to get the characters at all plausibly into that kind of sexual scenario. I wonder whether there is any perceivable difference for the reader between the fics that took concerted work, and the ones that just seemed to write themselves.

It goes without saying that the DD community is non-judgemental and open as regards kinks and sexual situations, but I have also been so pleased at the level of acceptance and diversity found here on other counts: age, race, species(!), appearance, conventional/unconventional beauty, and so on. I think it's a real testament to the spirit of tolerance, experimentation, respect and mutual support we have, here.

- Which leads me on to perhaps the most important part of this comment: a community is essentially just the sum and product of it's members and leaders, and what superb people we have! I sincerely thank the mods for keeping DD afloat, despite the vicissitudes of life - both real and online. Your organisation, planning of fun activities (such as KK and BB!) and friendly attitudes are very much appreciated. And of course, thank you to all of the writers, readers and commenters for all you do here. I, for one, really value what we have created, and raise a glass to the next ten years!

PurpleFluffyCat x