With Thanks To All...

On June 10, 2012, Coco, Iris, Sere and I opened a twitter account called The GI Series Fans. With the blessing of SR and his publicist, Enn, we set out to provide a positive place for fans of The Professor and his Beloved to gather, swoon and share news about one of our favorite stories and authors.

We had no idea who we would meet or if anyone would even notice we were there, but very quickly we were introduced to some lovely people and our numbers began to grow.  We never imagined that within a year's time we would be running multiple sites and be joined by so many sister sites from all around the world.

During our first year, we were thrilled to learn that The Professor would return; we fantasized about Gandy and Cavill playing the part; we anticipated each and every teaser tweet that SR provided us; we held a fundraiser to benefit the American Red Cross and One Boston Fund; and we've enjoyed every moment of it.

So please accept my personal thanks for your essential support during our first year. It has been a joy meeting so many fans of Sylvain Reynard and his stories. We have so much to look forward to this year and beyond, and we'll hope you will continue to be a part of our world.

Take Care,
Jenn (aka Miss Cranberry)

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Happy One Year Anniversary, Argyle Empire!

It didn’t happen overnight, and wasn’t at all planned.

A year ago, I was lucky enough to be given the honor to start the official fans twitter for the GI series readers and SR’s fans by both SR and his publicist, Enn B. I mean, I like Twitter and tweeting random craps, err.. I mean mundane things in my life, but running a fans twitter for a national best selling series and author is a whole new Star Trek universe (which happens to be one of his favorite...things). And I certainly don’t speak nor understand Klingon language.

I didn’t want to disappoint and (bless my little ambitious heart) I also realized that it’d take a village to run the account, so I started asking around for helps. I approached @RandomCran (Jenn), @SerendipitousMC (Sere/Mango), and @Iris_Elli (Elli) to jump on board because we’ve known each other a couple of years before the GI series hit the worldwide market and readers. And the love and adoration they have for both the series and SR assured me that they’d be perfect fit. They all said yes, and the rest is history.... okay, maybe not that easy and fast.

We began with @TheGISeriesFans and it was a slow start. Mainly because all four of us are, ahem, responsible adults with family, job, and school. It was a lot of going back and forth with Enn, too, as to what guidelines we needed to follow, and without her, there wouldn’t be this pretty and argyled up website. @TheGiSeriesFans received a huge makeover and we changed the name to @Argyle_Empire and operated as the main official twitter for the GI fans in the US.

It’s been a great pleasure to be part of this wonderful series from the beginning with the rest of you. Distance, like age, is only a number. We all live in different places in the world, but thanks to social media that has brought us all closer via the world wide web. There are many of us who love, adore, and admire the series and its author, SR, whom has shown tremendous support of charity that he highlights every Tuesday via @SylvainReynard.

I’d like to thank y’all, the readers and fans of the series, as well as around-the-world sister sites for your generosity, kindness, love, and support. We’re not who we are had it not been because all of you.

Thank you.
Coco

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Happy 1st Anniversary to the blog!

It has been such a fun year to see the evolution of Argyle Empire and I have been glad to be a part of it.  Soon after Gabriel's Rapture was released with Omni, I was approached by Coco wondering if I would be interested in starting a twitter with some of our fellow muses to create a place for fans of SR to meet and discuss SR's books.  We had met and become friends through the earlier versions of the books and were glad to continue in the journey.

SR and Enn gave us the go ahead to get started and from there @TheGISeriesFans was born. Through last summer we got the big news that Berkley had picked up the books and we knew this was going to get even bigger. September 5 came with the big release and Enn coordinated to start our sister sites around the world.  From there we worked to help spread the word and were happy to see SR's name on the NY Times Best Sellers list!  The announcement that he decided to do a 3rd Gabriel book came with Squee's around the world from his fans and even more he had been approved for 2 more books with Berkley~Penguin!  From twitter we moved to Facebook and in January the blog was born.  We fiddled around with names for the blog because we wanted to follow SR into a new era beyond The GI Series, and his and the professors love of argyle gave way to the Argyle Empire!  Now all of the GISeriesFans are SRFans and we can't wait for Gabriel's Redemption and beyond. :-)

It has been a pleasure to work with Cran, Mango, Coco, Enn and SR through all of this as well as all of our Sisters (and a few brothers~Waves to Mog ;-) and other Muses that have lent their hands, talent and expertise.  We have all contributed in different ways. I loved the music in SR's books so I started collecting songs and created the Youtube #LovingJulia and #GIRSL lists, and being a very visual person, Pinterest and Tumblr became my outlets.  I can't wait to see what music and images SR will included and inspire in Gabriel's Redemption so I can continue to add to those lists. :-)

Thank You to all of the readers out there that have participated, asked questions, shared their favorite book moments and the love of The Professor, his Julia and perhaps even David Gandy, Henry Cavill and others we may see when we read.  *sigh* I look forward to meeting more of you and continuing on in this journey!  We are all fans too so every time SR tweets, "I'm writing..." we get shivers of excitement with you!

All the Best,
Miss Iris~Elli

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Has it really been a year? Time flies when you're having fun reading great books by your favorite author, spreading the word about his writing, and meeting lots of amazing new people thanks to Sylvain Reynard.

My three account admin compadres (Coco, Iris_Elli and RandomCran) asked me last year if I'd like to help out with the Twitter account for SR's books, and I jumped at the chance. His writing has give me so much - new insights into life, love and redemption; new avenues of literature and art to explore, new and creative ways to snark, and most of all, new friends of the highest calibre - so I thought that the least I could do would be to donate Twitter time.

But like so many other things with SR, what you give is far outweighed by what you get back.  I've chatted, laughed, and exchanged photos and joke with dozens of new friends. I've helped people by answering questions and pointing them in the right direction when they're looking for information on the books and their themes and artistic elements. I've found new charities and new ways to donate my time or other resources; and I've found there are many, many people like me who are also eager to do so. It's yet another way SR inspires us, and it's among the more meaningful ways I've been able to connect with an author's writing and messages.

And all this is above and beyond the friends I made years ago, when we first began reading SR's work in a smaller universe. These are people who I know will be friends for life. They're more than just virtual; they're real, and wonderful, and supportive and funny.  SR has given me much more than the sharing of his talents. He's enabled me to connect with some of the finest people I've ever met; and that continues up to this day, thanks to my time on the Twitter account and the AE blog. As the saying goes, it's the gift that keeps on giving.

Thank you to all of you who have said hello to me when I'm on Twitter and shared your thoughts about the books. Thank you to the many of you who have shared photographs, .gifs, and your interpretations of the books. Thanks for being so friendly - even if you don't have more to say than "Hey there!", I love hearing from you. Thank you to my friends Jenn, Elli and Coco, for being so supportive and so incredibly great to work with. I definitely want to add Enn Bocci to that list of friends, too. She's like the "nerve center" for all things related to SR's publishing, and none of this would have been a success without her. We love being a team and being "diplomats" for SR's writing.

And most of all, thank you, SR, for sharing your extraordinary talents and intellect with us; for inspiring us to do good through your focus on charity; and for your kindness and humor. (Parenthetically, it should be noted that I've found the Internet is a boundless source of great experiences, and most of that has involved you and the friends I've made through you.)

Mango