CALNVAK - High School Stories

So as I have mentioned in previous blogs, I love to read. Back in high school it was very much a joy to find new fantasy writers. I loved reading these books so much and found myself irritated that I had to consciously search for new authors. Like... why wasn't there a place that had similar authors all in one spot? (Keep in mind this was early 2000s... so... it wasn't a thing yet.) Which meant, I was going to make it a thing.

In doing so I selected some of my top favorite authors at the time and made my own website. CALNVAK

Pronounced: Cal - Like Callie N - Just saying the letter name Vac - like a vacuum

The authors that begun this website were:

C (Christine Feehan)

A (Amelia Atwater-Rhodes)

L (L.J. Smith)

N (Nancy A. Collins)

V (Vivian Vande Velde) A (Annette Curtis Klause) K (Karen E. Taylor)

The site had book details, a link to the authors websites, fan art, links that stated: if you like this author check out this one! Since some of these authors were YA and some adult. And a scale of which books were for what genre.

Now, my teenage self was like, "Crap... this is a lot of work... I may need some help with this site."

So I scrolled through AOL Chats (Yup, told you if was in the early 2000s) and looked for people who had one or more of these authors on their about me section and I cold DMed them.

This lead me to two people who would forever change my life.

The first was a girl named Ravyn. She loved L.J. Smith and Amelia Atwater-Rhodes and also, bonus, knew how to make website! We got to chatting and she agreed to help me in making this website and gathering the information we would need in order to get it up and running.

The other person was a screen name Vampiregod. Instantly I was like, A vampire god huh? I see... given my current obsession with vampires, I was intrigued. So I cold DMed them and stated, "A Vampire God huh? Well I think you should be worshipping me." Keep in mind... I knew nothing about this person.

Well this lead to a conversation and finding out they were unable to help with CALNVAK as they didn't read any of these authors. But it did become a friendship, which later turned into a relationship, which later turned into a marriage, two kids, and running on 22 years together.

I kept CALNVAK up and running for several years, adding authors as I found them and doing several revamps. I still have the site, though it is unpaid for and very out dated... and always say I want to get back to it... but never find the time to.

One day, perhaps... What is one author you think should have been on CALNVAK? Let me know in the comments below.