Hi everyone! Hows everyone finding their footing in 2016 so far? We have so much coming up: Season 6B is nearly upon us, with all the madness and potential for Caryl awesomenss that brings; Nine Lives is about to turn 2, which means an epic event is headed your way; the admin team has been incredibly hard at work trying to find ways to improve and expand the experience of Nine Lives for our loyal family.

It's this last bit I want to talk about, just for a moment.

First and foremost: YOU GUYS. Ikkleosu, subversivegrrl, meeshie and Tech Guy are amazing. Ah-MAZE-Ing. Most of you are aware we've been experiencing a host of tech issues lately (thanks a lot, hackers!) and they have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to keep things running, especially while I was hospitalized and out of commission for a while during the holidays. Please, I'm begging you, shower them with your love and thanks for everything they do for Nine Lives. They have more than earned it.

Second, while we are making considerable progress in fixing the technical problems that have plagued us, we also completed a long overdue project.

WE HAVE MORE SITE SKINS!

Skins Nine11-Nine14 are now live and ready for viewing, featuring incredible banners and artwork courtesy of untapdtreasure, Equuleus86 and the famous Nutty McNut. A shoutout specific to the McReedus fans out there: Nine11 is for you! Basically, now you have even more ways to personalize your Nine Lives experience!

Here's a full list of skins and the featured artists:

• Nine01-Nine03: banners by adelicateflower08
• Nine04-Nine05: banners by PixieGrunger
• Nine06: banner by Equuleus86
• Nine07: banner by meeshie
• Nine08-Nine10: banners by Stephtron312
• Nine11-Nine12: banners by untapdtreasure
• Nine13-Nine14: banners by Equuleus86 featuring artwork with permission from Nutty McNut

Thank you to everyone who has helped make Nine Lives look and feel incredible! We have such amazing talent of all kinds in this fandom. 

EDIT: We have also made a slight change in how voting for Member of the Month (MOTM). Instead of typing in a member's name, you now have a drop-down box to select from. The author's box is populated only with those members who have published at least one story on Nine Lives AND have not previously won Author of the Month. The reviewer's box is populated with members who have left at least one review on any story on the archive AND have not previously won Reviewer of the Month. So now, instead of votes being wasted if a previous winner is nominated (as it was in the past), each vote will be able to count because previous winners will not appear in that category option. (You can more quickly scroll through the list by typing the first few letters of the member's name.)

That's enough from me. Don't forget to cast your votes for MOTM and drop me a PM with your recommendations for Featured Story of the Week. STAY TUNED, because coming up over the next couple of weeks we've got several challenges, the next set of Writers Chats and Nine Lives 2nd Anniversary event! 

-FM