Long before there were Dating Aps, long before there were Dating websites, love existed on the internet.

Many years ago… Many, many, years ago; when the internet was basically a series of bulletin boards, and AOL was just a few tones on your landline phone, I was seeking out places where I could network with fellow writers, comic book artists, and animators. It was a great place, just reading each other’s posts. No graphics to distract you from the important content.

On a site called GEnie, I joined a board of writers (the SFRT – Genie Science Fiction Roundtable), that including major professions; not just in prose but in film, television, and animation script writing. There were also boards where we could share our own writing for others to read and provide review in order to find improvement.

It was here that I posted the very first draft of the story of the super heroine known as FLYING GLORY, this story would eventually become our webcomic FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY.

I soon made a friend on this bulletin board. A guy named Shan who had the same interest in comic books, animation, and writing for them. We got along really well, becoming friends…

Until I read Shan’s story to review.

It was cool because it was able a team of super heroines. Yet, by the time I had reached the end of the story, it turned into a very anti-male story.

That’s when I realized: Shan is a woman!

She explained that the story was in response to a bad break up.

But that didn’t change our friendship any, at least it didn’t tear it apart.

We still had so much in common, though we lived thousands of miles away from each other, we hit it off even more.

Not only did we continue in the different BBSs on GEnie, chatting with other writers and the like, we also began to hang out in private chat rooms more and more.

The one thing I knew was that I was falling in love with this woman from far across the internet.

Her plans were to come down to Los Angeles to start her career in animation.
She has had a mentor in animation writing for many years who had given her a recommendation of another friend who needed a house sitter and so suggested Shan could stay there a few of weeks.

Shan also asked her mentor about me. We had only interacted over the internet; I had met her once at a convention. But she said nice things about me.

I apparently wasn’t a threat.

Which was a good thing as I was waiting at the airport for Shan’s arrival. (Long ago visitors could go right up to the gate as people deplaned.)

I would visit her nearly daily at the house and later at the hotel and then her apartment.

We were in love.

I certainly was.

It would take me a long time — There was no getting down on one knee moment, but one day I took her to a ring store to pick out a ring we both liked. It was just organic as it happened.

Sometime later when my family was visiting relatives in Ireland, I told my parents about the ring. They were pleased, and not at all surprised. So, for Shan, it became official when I called her to let her know.

It still took me several years to push things further. I had so hoped my career would have blossomed sooner, but we couldn’t wait any more.

We were finally married.

Now, TODAY, we are celebrating our Tenth Wedding Anniversary.

Ten years is only a fraction of the time we’ve been together and the love we have shared.

Thank you, God, for my beloved wife and all the years she has put with me.