It's out! It's here! The first collab I took part in making! And it's also FRONTPAGED! OMG I'm so happy right now.

You can listen to it here:

Huge thanks to Flamadour for organising this collab, LuckyDee for pinpointing it in the Writings forum and voicing my poem, and everyone who contributed to the collab.

Oh, just in case someone for some weird reason wants to read the poem I made for this collab, here it is

Burning the flags

The acrid smoke is stinging our eyes

To make us cry for tools to buy and sell.

But no longer we enslave ourselves,

We are burning down the money used to set the price

The putrid smoke is staining our tongues

With taste of greed, of claims on land and people.

But wherever we are born, we’re free and equal,

And we are burning down the maps with borders separating us.

The heavy smoke is filling our lungs

With heavy soot of lives destroyed and broken,

But this deceitful pride is now forgotten

As we are burning down the flags that brought us wars and scars.

The future of humanity united

Is still a misty silhouette ahead,

And to illuminate the path we tread,

We are burning down the humanity divided.

As I mentioned earlier, I decided to take part in a Spoken Word Poetry Collab!

And I finished a poem! It's about leaving behind things of our current reality that looks fine but are actually hindering our progress, it's called Burning the Flags.

It's SFW but some people might find it disturbing, So I am hesitant to post it in the collab thread right away. If someone is interested in recording a reading of it for a collab and/or making a background music, PM me and I will send it to you, so you can see if it's content is okay with you. Or, if the collab organizer will say it's okay, I'll post it the collab thread.

I'm not really sure if anyone will read this but if it attracts some more attention to the writing portal then it's not in vain.

So, there are 3 writing events on NG that I participate in, being

1. NG Fests 2023 short story contest here

https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1521211

I already made my entry there and there are some really cool entries,much better than mine, and there's still some time left to enter till April 15.

2. Pico Day writing contest dedicated to - surprise - Pico Day!

https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1523434

I already have an idea for this one and plan to work on it in second half of April. If you want to take part and tell a story about Pico's new neighbor, you have (almost) a month to write one!

3. Spoken word poetry collab.

https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1523147

It's not a contest, it's, as title says, a collab between poetry writers and voice actors. I'm in process of doing a poem for that, I hope to finish it next week, and it's gonna be called Burning the Flags. The deadline is May 1 so there's still time to enter!

That's my great plans for April, and I hope the writing portal will get more readers and writers! If you feel the inspiration, all three events have still not reached the deadline, so you can go take part in them. And definitely click that follow button on the threads to make sure you don't miss those cool stories and poems written by fellow Newgrounders.

So I thought I can finally try to do something creative on NG. Since I can't animate, code, compose music or sing, the only thing left to do is to write. I have an experience of playing and DMing a forum literature RPGs (mafia and detective style). And I have a couple ideas for a murder mystery plot (one is about a witch hunter and the other is about exploring an abandoned spaceship) so why not creating a game here. I made a topic in writing forum so if you are interested in it, check the link below

https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1515286#bbspost27559336_post_text

Since I was gifted a supporter status (thank you once again, @The-Great-One), it will have no meaning to look for someone to buy it for me if I transfer money, at least for a year. BUT. I still want to support NewGrounds. So, if you are a user from a country that still works with both russian banks and SWIFT, PM me, and I will transfer you money to buy a yearly subscription. Long Live NG!

I am so totally at loss for words now. So this morning when checking out what’s new on NG I see a notification that I was mentioned in a post. Not just any post. In the 66th issue of THE TANK TRIBUNE. On top of that, I was mentioned as the “Supporter of the week”.

Me. Supporter. Of the week. In The Tank Tribune issue. O-M-G.

I can’t even start to express how grateful I am for this and for all the reaction on my request. When I made a post about finding a way to subscribe for users from Russia, I had only a vague hope for some general help, but not only was I immediately contacted by many users (thank you @Fro, @Volpon, @TwistedFW, @Austerity), but also @The-Great-One decided to gift me with a supporter status. And all this despite the fact that I’m not one of the creators, but merely a viewer. I think this is what make NewGrounds community so cool. That’s why I love NewGrounds so much.

And yet, the reason for being mentioned in The Tank Tribune makes me sad. All the suffering from losses and separation caused by war makes me sad and afraid. But I still believe that communities like NewGrounds will prevail and the humanity will make its way to a better future.

As for the matter of subscription – the payment systems I tried (PayPal and any it owns like Venmo; Cash App; Unistream, Korona, Wise etc.) don’t allow transactions between Russia and USA/Europe, VPN or no. There still are some banks in Russia that make SWIFT-based transactions but their commission fees are enormous (minimum 60$ even if I send only 25$).

So far I think the best chance is if there are any users from countries near Russia who are still working with both Russian banks and SWIFT or Paypal, like Kazakhstan, Armenia. If there are any, I humbly ask that you help me to make a bridge between those of us who are separated by the war and help to make NG community even stronger.

So if you are from any such country and for some reason you are reading this, please PM me. Let's keep NG strong together.