Hi, friends. Old friends: nice to see you again. New friends: fancy meeting you here. Everyone: pardon the dust while things get settled again.

My blog has been around for a long time and it’s gone through many changes over the years. I get a little antsy here, rebrand everything, wiggle into a slightly new direction, and hope I’ve found a comfy spot to settle into. I’ve got a good feeling about this 2025 version for so many reasons.

Wet Paint, Don’t Touch

We needed a new look here for several reasons. Most importantly, the paid theme I had been using for a few years wasn’t working for me anymore. Some of it was literally, technically, not working and I so did not feel like mucking around in code to figure out the problem. Much easier to burn it down and start over, right?

And much more fun, especially now that I know why things have felt off here for a long time (aka why I keep thinking a rebranding will solve everything).

The best part of this new look is probably the clarity and focus. The content is here to speak for itself, as it should. The design is here to highlight that content.

Putting Myself Back Into My Content

There’s no denying I’ve been fairly absent from my content over the last year, probably longer. I started publishing more contributed content because a) my creative juices morphed into an icky sludge and it felt like it took a lot less brain power to revise and expand on content I received rather than write everything from scratch all the time; and b) getting paid is nice.

I focused most of my energy on my other website, the one where I’m a professional helping other creatives start their own websites to market themselves and their work. Starting a business is scary and I made lots of mistakes pretty much immediately. Burn it down and start over definitely happened at least once in the three years I’ve been in business. Unfortunately, that left me little time and energy to spend here.

As it happens, I was working on some business stuff related to helping people figure out the intention behind what they want to do with their website. I made a slideshow for it! I’m proud of myself and excited for that to be part of my debut into video lessons. While I was busy patting myself on the back, it suddenly occurred to me that this website right here lacked a clear intention. Oops. And that was why things felt off.

I originally started this site to host my blog to share my creative voice, get people interested in my writing, and eventually sell a novel or two. And I spent over a decade mucking between that, trying to cram in my portfolio, and dabbling in trying to monetize this site. Unsurprisingly, it’s been a mess.

The good news about getting it wrong for so long is, eventually, getting it right just kind of has to happen. So going forward, you can expect to see a lot more of me in my content. And I’m ready to get weird with it, so buckle up.

I’m Listening

If you’ve got thoughts on the new look, suggestions, or topics you hope to see me cover, let me know in the comments. My intention is refocused on building an engaged community, so let’s get a conversation going.

Leave a comment. Subscribe to my upcoming newsletter. Let’s get the party started (howling at the moon while standing on the beach party vibes, not awkwardly standing off to the side in a stranger’s house vibes).

Thanks again for being here and I look forward to seeing you in the next post!