My 2019: Achievements and Failures - Traversing Oceans

In January of 2019, I had no idea that by mid-August I would have experienced so many major life changes that not only would I no longer be the Director of my 501c3 charity for animal rescue, but I would be living in Europe with a friend and business partner I met in Krakow at Steemfest 3.

In November of 2018, @steemhousepub made a presentation at SF3 about our startup blockchain-based business, the pending release of our first novel, and a front-end we hoped to roll out within a few weeks of our appearance there. What followed was a dizzying downward spiral of dishonest developers and fraudulent claims by people who talked a good game but were utterly incapable of playing it. Tensions rose within the Steemhouse community as it seemed that we, as its leaders, were selling vaporware and unable to deliver on the promises we had made. Tensions escalated within the group, key executives walked out, and I was left with little more than one hell of a marketable product and two fists waving in the air.

Because of this, I have to say that my biggest personal failure of 2019 was being unable to deliver a product that I had flown across the Atlantic Ocean to launch. My determination to appear onstage at Steemfest 3 bankrupted me as an individual and caused so much friction in my personal life that a thirteen year marriage came to an end in the weeks that followed. Shortly afterward, my primary business associate with Steemhouse began behaving oddly and soon he, too, fell off the friendship list and stopped communicating. To this day I have no explanation for his departure.

However, an unexpected series of events began to unfold around Christmas of 2018. They involved a most unexpected hero and a cascade of improbabilities that I’ll probably have to write about in a novel some day.

On November 12, 2018, the day after Steemfest ended in Krakow, I stood in the courtyard of Wawel Castle taking photographs of pigeons with a broken iPhone I had just dropped on the pavers. The following photo is the actual last photo I snapped before I turned around and saw a familiar face among hundreds of strangers in a land where I didn’t even speak the language.

I’d met @michelios on the night of opening drinks, in the lobby of the Qubus Hotel. We’d been instructed to use our shiny new Steemfest apps to scan and connect with other Steemians, and Michel marched right up to me with the QR open on his phone and a big smile on his face. It was this same smile I turned around to see at the castle, standing two feet behind me, one of two people at the event I regretted not getting to know better. Well, now I had my chance. I spent the day with Michel and another Steemhouse executive, exploring Krakow and finding authentic Polish food to enjoy while we sat and talked about publishing. We exchanged contact information at the close of the evening, and the next day I flew back to the States not knowing if I’d ever hear from him again.

Fast forward two months and Michel was stepping into the role of Steemhouse co-owner with me after the abrupt and inexplicable departure of my former business partner. In February he flew to the States and we finalized the paperwork naming him in the official Articles of Organization. After two more trans-Atlantic flights, he was back in the States by the end of March. We launched a bookstore tour heralding the release of Steemhouse’s debut novel, High Kill.

At the end of June Michel flew back to France, and in the intervening months, it became very clear that we did our best work in the same room rather than five thousand miles apart. I began making plans to spend at least three months in Europe marketing the novel to those audiences and figuring out how to make our front end website a reality.

In the midst of all this, the novel began enjoying mainstream exposure that led to both celebrity and professional endorsements plus a glowing review by Kirkus that landed us in their August trade publication. Sales of the print books were slow, but the ebook has seen as many as 372 downloads in a single day. Steemhouse acquired a second novel and we hope to release it in 2020. These things definitely fall into the achievement category.

However, success did not come without a price. My 501c3 animal rescue in the heart of Central Appalachia came under very heavy fire for my critical appraisal of local culture and corrupt politics. Over the course of time I received not only death threats on social media but harassment by local officials that included targeted traffic stops and warning letters from an assistant Commonwealth Attorney of Tazewell County. Because of the potential risk to lives and livelihoods, most of my organization’s volunteers quit. I was left no choice but place the remaining animals I had in sanctuary and leave the county under very tense circumstances.

Also counted in my achievement basket is the fact that, although my marriage itself had ended, I salvaged a friendship with my ex and we remain in close contact to this day. Few things sadden me more than once-peaceful relationships that end in vitriol and hatred. This was not the case for us, thank goodness. Without the stresses of a marriage that didn’t suit either of us, he and I were able to set aside our personal conflicts and differences and remember why we liked each other to start with. I can imagine that hordes of people in Southwest Virginia were lined up waiting for drama to break loose on social media between him and me. I’m happy to report that drama never happened either in public or behind the scenes. I’d trust my life to him even now--I just can’t live it in the same household with him, nor he with me. It was a decent end to a chapter in my life, and I’m very proud of us for how well we handled it.

By October of 2019, I was living in a rented flat in Eastbourne, England, directly on the seafront with three dogs Michel and I brought with us from the U.S., sharing space with my soul mate and best friend. Not only are we inseparable in the minutia of daily life, we are a dynamo of a business team. Over the course of our year as Steemhouse partners, we evolved the original Steemhouse MVP into what we believe is a micropress and online publishing business model with potential to change the industry. We’ve winnowed down the technical requirements of our project to something we can handle ourselves without having to involve external developers. Our long-awaited online literary magazine is due for launch literally within hours of the moment I make this post. The publishing house itself is a success on the very merits of its solid first release, and our writing community has seen a resurgence of activity after blockchain drama and loss of confidence in Steem all but decimated it earlier this year.

Does it fall into the failures basket--the fact that Michel and I have backed away from the strategy of a Steem front end and modified our plan in favor of a traditional website? Is it a concession of defeat? That depends on priorities. If dapps are the only reason for Steem to exist, then yes. Maybe it is a failure. But if reaching the masses and mainstream application of the Steem blockchain are factored, then I think we have one of the most promising, stable, and enduring projects on the platform. We have the ability to reach hundreds of thousands of voracious readers who wouldn’t spend five minutes on a blogging platform like Steemit. And yes, we have a specific, detailed onboarding plan to secure them a wallet and encourage vigorous interaction in our Steem Community.

Anyone looking for whitepaper documentation about our strategy won’t find it. Michel and I figured out quite early that we have first mover advantage in the blockchain publishing arena and we’re not about to give that up in the interest of transparency. We’ve put enough information on the @steemhousepub blog to satisfy all healthy forms of curiosity. But to summarize, the litmag will incorporate only one method of interaction for readers, and that is to direct them to our Steem Community, @hive-130214. We are prepared to personalize the experience for new users and mentor them through the acclimation process, since many of the people we onboard will have little or no experience with cryptocurrency or any other aspect of the blockchain. Those users are still valid, and we want them.

Yes, 2019 was a banner year for me. Everything about my world has changed. Reaching the point of feeling I scored more achievements than failures has not been without either pain or tears. But from where I am now, I would never go back. For all the accomplishments of the past twelve months, I believe more will come in 2020.

Find me on the Web:
http://www.authordianeryan.com/
https://www.facebook.com/rhonda.kay.79
https://www.facebook.com/authordianeryan/
https://www.steemhousepublishing.com/