Hello

Hi everyone!

I am the new (old) kid on the block. I just joined up and am in the process of finding my way around. I am looking forward to reading your work and giving it a review/critique that is helpful to you. I am hoping you’ll do the same for me.

Be warned! I am a retired teacher and cannot resist applying my “red pen” to issues such as grammar and spelling. So, expect there to be some of that mixed in with my critiques!

Looking forward to meeting you!

Welcome to the site, hullabaloo. I'm so sorry for the losses you've experienced. I can't imagine how hard that must be.
I'm one of the other writers here and do my best to help new members get up to speed quickly. Please check out an article I pinned near the top of the Premium forum for tips on how to maximize the number of reviews you can get. It'll help you avoid some of the mistakes other new members sometimes make.
I'm going to send you a connection request. If you accept, we can use private messages to communicate.
Fastest way to get answers to any questions you might have would be to simply post them in the Premium forum (that's one of its main uses). You'll get the most eyeballs on it that way. But if you prefer to ask me privately, feel free, although my turnaround time may be overnight given where you're located.
By the way, Morag, one of our other members, is from Scotland. Great lady. She's writing two books at present (mysteries), as am I (a supernatural thriller and a space opera). Depending on what you like to read, I can point you toward the right members. Until you know who's who, who's active, etc., I suggest reviewing mainly material scrolling down your home page, as well as anything that's just scrolled off your home page (there's a button under each section that lets you go back further). The stuff on your home page is guaranteed to be from active users.
As you've probably seen by now, and unlike Booksie, this site uses "points" for posting. You earn points by doing reviews (at least 5 inline comments in an inline review or 50+ words in a regular review). While collecting and using points may seem annoying at first, it's actually very easy to collect enough points.  The points system encourages people to Review each other's work, and it tends to scare off trial users who just want to post their stuff without reviewing the work of others. For points, review (roughly) 3 chapters or stories to be able to post each of yours; those are averages, and it's a little different for poems. The longer a posted work is, the more points you get when reviewing it; the longer your work is, the more points you need to post it; try to avoid posting overly long pieces (all this is covered in my Premium post mentioned above, including how to deal with long chapters or short stories).
That's all I can think of right now. Please look for my connection request on your home page in a few minutes.

Welcome aboard!
Dirk