Open "letter" to the critics

Okay I thought about this for a bit, and recently events I wont go into made me decide to write this as a blog people can read.

Well lot of people I know are aware we get some great site support, but there are people on the internet still spreading false rumours about me and even a "hate" blog. (For the record this blog actually made me laugh more than offend.)

To the critics etc
Yes I do read all your emails, and yes I do not answer them for a reason. I see no need to take precious time out of my day to reply, hence this blog post.
First of all lets address the "fangirl" and "only doing this site to get close to the band/get things" comments.
  Number 1: I had the idea for some kind of dedication site etc, long before I knew who Tuomas truly was. I really only knew his musical creations should have more support. This was around 2000-2002
  Number 2: When I first created the site it was never intended to seek official status or get "close" to a band member or gain access to any perks that would of came with the position.
  Number 3: Do you really think I would of been given this opportunity if Tuomas/Ewo even slightly suspected me as a "fangirl" etc.
  Number 4: I do not demand Tuomas does things or gives things to the site. Anything he has done for us has been from his own wishes or out of casual discussion of ideas.

I won't go into some of the stupid rumours people are talking on the net, but seriously.. how old are you guys? Spreading false rumour why? Jealousy? Immaturity? You really need to just grow up a bit and just be happy that there is a dedicated team supporting Tuomas and doing promotion for him.
To those criticising me supporting various Nightwish sites.. why? I heard that it was stupid for me to support sites/communities that speak languages etc I don't speak. I fail to see the issue here. I have the TH site in other languages, and if other communities are doing a good job or aiming for a goal I think is a benefit to fans, of course I will promote this to the best of my ability. End of the day, yes I run the TH site but I also try my best to provide support to Nightwish fans across the net; no language/country restrictions.

To those who still think that I am some obsessed fan, come talk to me. We have a chat room on the site and I am regularly online. I'm an open person to any questions and I have had people come to me as sceptics who now are regulars online and support the website themselves in various ways.
Also to those people who 1) keep telling me to prove Tuomas supports us by getting him to email/write/call 2) those who ask for his contact details endlessly over and over... Please don't waste your time with these requests. To contact Tuomas write to his management in letter form, all emails I get are appreciated and are lovely and I do tell Tuomas this, but please understand I cannot forward 50+ emails to him a day and I will never share any of his contact details.

I hope this has cleared some things up for some people.

Normal service to the blog will resume next post

Carol

Plotting, back-pain and others

Well since my "Pillow" kindly reminded me my blog needed updating, guess what I'm doing?

Last few weeks have been a mixture of good and bad. The development of a bad back and now flu like symptoms make me think yet again I'm burning the candle at both ends, coupled with some misunderstandings; things got pretty low recently.

Things quickly picked back up after everything was cleared up, my staff gave me a whipping. Also Plamen's DVD of Tuomas playing the sax helped too, nice of him to send it for us to put on the website.
Also some good proactive plotting with Tuomas always makes me smile, but I was also involved in getting a Brazilian Nightwish forum online.

We were talking about the idea for this forum for a while for various reasons I won't go into except Brazil had no official forum. A chat to Ewo got the status sorted and then we got it all together. Of course my non existant multi-lingual skills means I'll promote only for Luis and Cyntia, but if it helps.. great. http://nightwishforum.com.br/ is the address you need to check it out. 70 members in 2 days though, amazing!

Another cool thing that happened was Alex from The Islanders visit to Durham. He came down here and hung out at my place, tried on Tuomas' hat hehe and next day I showed him around the city and we sat in the hotel a few hours planning the fanclub. Made some good progress and ideas, including getting contact with Troy Donockley.

Bit of a mess this blog but while typing this I also have 8 open conversations going on hehe. Will have some cool reports in a few weeks, so until then...Ciao

Amazing friends

After having a very crappy fortnight with an ill son, website issues etc I needed a pick me up. Now the common joke in the NW circle is Fazer chocolate.. which I have now run out of *Hint to Cyntia!* However one of my friends sent me something in the mail which I got yesterday which is so nice and thoughtful.

Funny-ish sorry how I came to know him:

I met this guy called Alex via Nightwish UK, starting talking to him and offered my services if he needed any help in the future. It was around this time the first Escapist draft hit the net and as publicity I contacted John Two Hawks for an interview. Being the kind of person I am, I opened the questions to the members of Nightwish UK. Now Alex fully supported the idea while another admin did not, the mods were told to keep an eye on me and "this Tuomas fansite". I think she thought I was a bit of a crackpot (maybe I am...who knows).
Fortunatly Alex gave me the benefit of the doubt of not being some crazy fangirl and got to know me. Who would of thought those 2 or so years ago I would now be Tuomas' administrator of his official website and working alongside Alex in the Nightwish UK rebuild: The Islanders :) Funny how things work out. Lesson to be learned here, not everyone is some crazy "fangirl//nutter" give them the benefit of the doubt and talk to them before judging... you just never know who they really are or what they can achieve.

Anyway moving on to what I got in the mail. Alex is aware my Nightwish collection is a little lacking due to an ex and my giving nature to donate cd's etc to fans rather than keep myself. He knows I recently acquired Tuomas' lyrics to his first song "Nightwish", and that I no longer had Angels Fall First in my collection. Binding the two together he bought and sent me the collectors edition which contains the song "Nightwish" on it. Thank you Alex, such a thoughtful gift. He's coming down to where I live next week also so that will be fun, we call it a coffee and a brewski... other may call it Islanders Admin meeting :P

It was very kind of Tuomas to give me these lyrics and dare I say I had never listened to the song prior to owning these. So it was only a few weeks ago I heard the song for the first time and it was even more emotional for me to listen to it, since I could read through Tuomas' lyrics and see how he writes and his lyrics come to life on the page; rather than text on a screen or lyrics in a booklet.

I've started my Finnish studies again, I have acquired a little extra time and been practising what little Finnish I know on Plamen over the bast few days of chatting. Which leads me nicely into his interview, which is now on the website :) Some very beautiful words about our Ocean Soul on there.

And speaking of Tuomas, make sure you get to/register on our forums to see our plans for him for his birthday and Christmas.. it's going to be really special. But of course huge thanks to Kirsti Nortia-Holopainen (Tuomas' Mother) for helping me out big style with his Christmas gift, I was struggling with this but it would of spoiled the surprise for me to have asked him myself.

Well I have a free day today, no child as my Mother has him today. I do have a few translations to add to the website but nothing that will take too many hours. So I think a relaxing day in in order.
Until next time

As some people asked: Here is my current update of my office. Some people ask why since Tuomas is a friend, do I have him as my pc desktop wallpaper.. Actually I'll talk about this since some have went back to the fangirl thing.
It's not on there because its Tuomas... if you look closely you can see he's holding the websites book we made. That image sits on my desktop as inspiration to work hard and continue to strive to build the very best Nightwish community. It's an emotional image of Tuomas, I like to be reminded that he appreciates all we do and just how well that fans pull together.
Ignore the bad quality

"CC" :)

It's Thursday!! (yes would of been better if it was Friday here)

Since my last blog was my little video blog thing, this one will be back to basics text.

I don't have a great deal to report that's why it's been a while.

Well keeping the details out of it I left work so I'm currently job hunting. This has gave me plenty time to be a mum again and have plenty time to work on the site.

I've finished all the details for the competition and we will be announcing it once Anette has returned from recording in Finland.

We have a new Spanish translator working on the site due to popular demand.

I got a message from Plamen Dimov who was Tuomas' music teacher in school, and he want's to talk about him a little so we will be conducting an interview in the next few days.

Not much more really, see I told you I did not have much to report :)

Just keep smiling
C

Back to normality

Well it's been nearly a week since we made our first video blog about the night before meeting Tuomas. It's quite sad to think the event came and went so quickly.
Myself and Sarah were pretty 'sad' and started counting down the days to meeting since we got the date from Tuomas in December and we booked our hotel.
The days counted down fast and before I knew it I was working pretty much through the night organising things for London. We decided to have a website get together while we were down there also. So I called around several places and booked us an area in a rock bar: The Pipeline, this ended up being a really nice venue.
The biggest project we did was create a book for Tuomas. It was full of messages to him from fans.

We had a total of 76 fans take part (funny number when you think also Tuomas' year of birth) and it totalled close to 220 pages if I remember correctly.

Other things I arranged were some promotional pictures being made for Tuomas to sign for those attending the London gathering, as a small way of saying thank you for all the support I get for doing this.
                              
The day came and I headed to London. I live at the other end of England so a flight ended up the cheapest and quickest mode of transport to get there. I met up with my partner in crime Sarah and we headed off the our hotel together. We booked into the same one Tuomas was in as it made sense if schedule needed to be changed, of course it's an expensive choice but we both had the mentality of 'what the hell.'
The Sunday night consisted of me and Sarah making our first video blog after returning from some much needed food and drink, then afterwards we sat down and watched a few Nightwish DVDs, as the nerves were causing us not to be able to sleep.

Monday morning consisted again of another video blog and then we headed down to the bar to set up for Tuomas joining us an hour or so later. At this point we went through the wine list to chose Tuomas' "winnings". Now as most people know I had a bet with him on our 2 hockey teams playing each other.. I lost. The prize was the loser buys the wine for the meeting.
It turned 3pm and I caught the sight of a purple hat out the corner of my eye, who else could it of been. I wasn't as nervous as I expected when approaching him, after all we had been talking for over 3 months by this point. To break the ice I made a joke about expecting him to wear a hockey jersey to wind me up, he gave a laugh then simply gave a hug.. that was it ice broken, nerves instantly gone.
After introducing him to Sarah we sat, he laughed at the fact I remembered about his winnings. He went through some gifts he brought with him. I feel so privileged that he gave me what he did, his first ever lyrics- the song Nightwish. We also got loads of stuff for a competition which we will hold in the next few month, one of his hats he used in promo photos and live, the original artwork from Dark Passion Play, and loads of signed singles and some vinyl.
It was then I presented him with my personal gift and then of course the website book. He absolutely loved it. He was so emotional and flattered by it, it was getting myself and Sarah emotional too just watching him.

He said he will read every page and it was the best gift he's received, and really want's to write something special to the members of the site which he will do when he's finished reading it all.
Here is the video we took of him getting the book:

Following that we just chatted for a while. Told him off for the translation error of his recent illness which meant he told me he was suffering for something much more serious than the tonsillitis he was suffering from, of course still not a nice and you can tell especially on the videos that he was still not 100%.
We then preceded to ask him the questions that members of The Escapist had submitted. I had them wrote in a notepad which he took off me and read himself. It turned out to be a good little interview even if short. I apologise to people. We only took 20 questions with us as the interview was always going to be an extra to what we already had planned, it was not until we were into it and finished that we realised we didnt have enough. Typically when Tuomas put us on the spot to ask more, my mind went blank. Tuomas enjoyed our questions so much, we have sent him more via email that he was keen on answering.
To view the interview and read the transcript of it have a look here.

We then had Jukka, Ewo, Pip Williams and John join us. It was a good laugh and just very natural to sit and have a laugh. We quickly finished with a few photos. We initially were going to get quite a few and use them in website design etc but since Tuomas was still not feeling well, we only got a couple.

And that was it, after about 3.5 hours with Tuomas they left to head to the studio. Myself and Sarah retired to our room to make the last of our video blogs before heading out for food.

The next day we headed out to Camden, it was then I got a crazy idea of getting a tattoo to mark the occasion... so I did (you can see it on my right for arm on the top image of the blog).

We then headed to the Pipeline to the member meeting. We had a fantastic time! 20 people turned up which was amazing, the only thing is I forgot to take a group shot which annoyed me. We had some fun chats, and our Evil_Wench aka Sari decided it would be fun if she brought her whips.. I think she studied that picture of Tuomas whipping Jukka too much. I'll tell you she bloody hurts with it! We will be doing this again later in the year. It was so much fun, and everyone seemed to love the signed promo photo Tuomas did for everyone:

For more pictures of the meet look here
While there I got a phone call from Ewo, he was going to head over to party with everyone but in the end couldn't so a group of us went over to where he was. The guys had to leave to get the last train leaving myself and Cyntia to go with Ewo and crew to the Crobar till closing of 3am. We had a fab night, even though I ended up falling asleep on Cyntia's shoulder for a bit.

So that's it. Day after this I returned home to loads of work on the website and I'm still playing catch up.

Thank you for reading

Until next time!

Carol

The night after the event

Well it has been an interesting day. From sick with nerves too all gone in one tight hug. But I'll come back to this.

Myself and Sarah were up most of the night watching Nightwish in preparation for meeting with Tuomas later the next day. After 5 hours of DVD watching we called it a night.
Woke at a not so pleasing 7am but could not get back to sleep so lay there on msn for an hour or so before breakfast. It's hard to eat anything when you stomach feels like it's going to turn itself inside out with nerves, but the typical British cup of tea helped wonders.
After a few hours we were ready and sat in bar overlooking lobby so I could see when Tuomas came down from his room. I caught a flash of purple out the corner of my eye and instinctually knew it was him. Went over to meet with him and was greeted with him practically diving on me and a big hug, as I said earlier.... Nerves instantly gone.
We sat and he said "I have some gifts for you I hope you dong mind" my reply was of corse I don't mind and I have things for him too, he then insisted on going first and lifted out a huge collection of gifts. One thing which I will treasure forever is he gave me the original lyrics to the song Nightwish, which are his very first lyrics he wrote. I couldn't believe he gave me them.
I then gave him my gift, a Teemu Selanne collectors hockey framed signed picture etc, he freaked and loved it. Then we gave him the book from fans. He was so overwhelmed he was practically in tears at times. He promises to read every one of them and he was adamant he had to write a message to the website expressing his thanks.
We did the interview which he really enjoyed which we filmed and get online. All in all a great day, even got to meet Pip, Jukka and Ewo which was cool and they hung round about 40 mins or so too.
So it's 1am now and i'm getting tired.
So goodnight all!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:London- hotel

As the event approaches

The countdown begins..1 week to I head to London.

I made a list yesterday of things I still have to prepare before I go. I was shocked how much I still have to do. I have been working full time hours at work and also took on another project recently so I've been spreading my time out a little too thin it seems.

So far we have 27 people confirmed for the website gathering which is fantastic. The interview questions are set for Tuomas so at least the biggest things are done.

The "other" project I'm working on is building the site for the new Nightwish fan club for the British Isles.. it's going really well which is fab! (www.the-islanders.co.uk) I'll present the site and the idea to Ewo in London and introduce a letter from the club administrator to get the official status back for the club. Obviously we are sorting this out as soon as we can in advance of the album release etc so we can look at some fan related things.

I'm sorry for not updating regularly, hopefully that will change soon. But I do have more things I'm working on too so I cannot promise as many updates as what Anette does for example hehe... but of course I am far less interesting than her.

One suggestion someone had was if I could made a video blog of me and my work area when building Tuomas' site.. so I thought why not. I'll probably have a go on Tuesday with this.

So for now all take care- I will update on Tuesday