My Notice – Jodine Turner
Editor’s note: This is a farewell message from original VFA founder Jodine Turner, who has decided to step down from her role in the steering committee of the VFA. Without Jodine there really would be no VFA. We miss you, and wish you all the best with all you do! With much love from us all.
I am passionate about Visionary Fiction. I know you are as well.
There is an announcement to share with you today. I have officially stepped down from a leading role in the Visionary Fiction Alliance. Vic Smith made the announcement for me a while back, but as co-founder of the VFA I wanted to reach out to you personally, you the members who are the lifeblood and heart pulse of the VFA.
I didn’t expect this, but now that I am here, this path is clear to me. Leaving the VFA was as all-consuming as starting it. But life never misses a moment to give us signs and show us where our next steps might be, does it?
The creation and support of the VFA has been an epic journey. From my published article “Visionary Fiction: The New Kid on the Block” back in the May 2009 Writer’s Journal, through to today. I will not say I never imagined the success the VFA would become because I absolutely did imagine it.
After I published that article, I posted it on Goodreads, and I dreamt big. The original responses to my vision led to what we have become today, the VFA, co-founded with VF author Saleena Karim. I want to share that phenomenal Goodreads post link from back in 2011. The enthusiasm and relief of Visionary Fiction authors coming home to their literary tribe was exciting and palpable. It is a memory I hold dear. The resultant articles contributed by enthusiastic VF authors about the relevance of VF today were soulful, inspiring, and a foundation which we built upon. So many Visionary fiction authors contributed during that
time and over the years. You know who you are and you can feel proud to be a part of our VFA.
(That original article was coined by the VFA as “The Article That Started It All.”)
Through the ensuing years of networking, education, writing and soliciting hundreds upon hundreds of VFA blog posts, website building, construction of a VF Wikipedia page (thank you, Vic Smith), administration and steering committee meetings, VF outreach, and marketing, we have shared the dream of making Visionary Fiction a well-respected and more well-known
genre. It is now a rapidly growing literature genre, and the VFA is a cornerstone of that growth. We have made a tremendous difference. Isn’t that incredible?
So, I took a back seat to the VFA a bit ago with some serious health issues to attend to. I am doing much better and yet there is still a ways to go. To fully recover my health, I required a complete life change, and that necessitated a new way of giving myself back to myself, and relinquishing my role as part of the VFA leadership.
As I surrender the reins, I do so with such gratitude to you talented and inspired VFA members. Many of us have become fast friends, supporting each other, sharing, and developing cherished bonds.
My most heartfelt and special gratitude goes to the VFA admin team, the steering committee who runs things behind the scenes. Early VFA member Vic Smith deserves all our support as he is now heading this team. VFA co-founder Saleena Karim and early member Eleni Papanou, as well as the always helpful Jim Murdoch, continue to work with Vic. And Margaret Duarte has
consistently been an important and solid administrator and steering committee member. I love and respect you, my colleagues.
My passion for promoting VF will never end for me. Things are simply changing as all things change. None of us knows what life will present us, what is written in the depths of our own souls. We all know that life lesson. The VFA felt its impact when life’s surprises took our website manager and IT friend, the late Aaron Yeagle.
It matters hugely to me that your support for Visionary Fiction and the Visionary Fiction Alliance continues in my absence. I hope that those of you who have walked this amazing VFA journey with me would also meet me at my official resignation juncture by helping to spread the hope of Visionary Fiction so that it can reach as many readers, authors, and publishers as possible. That is the natural evolution of an organization beyond its co-founder.
We all agree today’s world needs Visionary Fiction. The writer Toni Morrison said this about the importance and artistry of being an author:
“This is precisely the time when artists go to work… We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”
So, I invite and encourage you to act on your passion—continue writing your novels, participate in our VFA by contributing guest articles, share your visionary writing experience and resources with other members, comment and interact with all the like-minded souls who have gathered through the VFA with the common desire to transform human consciousness and help civilization heal
through Visionary Fiction.
I send this letter with the deepest love and respect.
“Visionary Fiction speaks the language of the soul. It offers a vision of humanity as we dream it
could be.” ~Jodine Turner
Jodine, you have said some lovely things about all of us and I consider it an honour and a privilege to have been the first who joined you in the establishment of the VFA. It feels weird to think of the VFA without you but you initiated something beautiful in 2011 and we are all here thanks to you. Your creative spirit remains with us as an inspiration, and more people have come to learn about this important yet underrated genre and type of fiction. Love and light to you.
Dear Saleena,
Thank you so much. It has been my honor and delight to have worked alongside you. We’ve had quite the journey, haven’t we?!
We have indeed! 🙂
Jodine, I am grateful for meeting you on my visionary fiction journey. I feel the same as Saleena. Filling in the void that you leave behind seems impossible as your post that started it all inspired us all. You also helped me get started on my new career path that helps me give back to the community. I will forever be grateful. Although I have been busy with work, I remain dedicated. Hope you pop in to our FB page on occasion to say hello! Sending you love and light.
Dear Eleni,
Thank you and I am so glad you are enjoying your career path in service!
You have been another precious one I count as VFA colleague and friend.
Yes, I will check in on Facebook!
Thanks so much for all you’ve done, Jodine, not only for the Visonary Fiction Alliance, but also for bringing the genre of Visionary Fiction into the mainstream. Your leadership has helped so many VF authors find a home for their work. I’ll always value the friendship we’ve developed over the years. You’ve been, and continue to be, an inspiration.
Dear Margaret,
Thank you so much.
We have been through thick and thin together on this VFA journey, and you always remained someone I could count on, colleague and friend.
If I have done all your kind words indicate then I have done my job and that makes me happy.
Dear Jodine, it has been my pleasure to step in to transition the VFA website more than once and to be thus a part if the admin team for a period. Meeting you and the rest of the team confirmed my own pursuit as a visionary fiction author. Knowing there were other authors and of course readers of VF was the encouragement I needed to continue writing. I wish all the best in your future endeavours.
Thank you, Jim.
“Knowing there were other authors and of course readers of VF was the encouragement I needed to continue writing.” That is so helpful, isn’t it? And it is so good to know you found that encouragement through the VFA.