Lifequake, and Starting Over

Hi, and welcome to my writer's blog. I'm kind of doing a gut remodel of the whole thing, so please don't mind the current lack of content. I'll be fixing that soon.

I didn't make the decision to revise my blog lightly. In fact it was made under fairly extraordinary circumstances. Without getting into too many unpleasant details, I have severe health issues that have only recently started receiving real treatment, and my economic circumstances have put me under tremendous strain. I also live in a neighborhood which could provide content for episodes of Cops for about the next decade. It's not fun. We're actually currently fleeing after being stuck there for seven years--and believe me, that is a relief.

My past entries were written under tremendous strain, as I came to understand the problems with the current publishing model, how e-publishing might be my best option, and how modern writers are facing a dilemma--take the traditional route and try the lottery odds that they become the next J. K. Rowling, or explore e-publishing, self publishing and other alternative routes. Those who take the latter road are more likely to see results, and can avoid the bottom-rung treatment which most writers endure in traditional publishing. However, they risk being taken far less seriously by most people than their traditional counterparts, and that stigma can be hard to take. I agonized over this decision for almost a decade before I decided to focus on the road less taken, and I was very honest about my frustrations.

Now that we have an escape strategy from our current situation in place, and I have a plan for my writing career from here on, I decided to have a look at how I was presenting myself online. I read back over my whole blog, every surly, clue-bat-wielding, probably-sometimes-over-sharing bit of it, and found myself debating. Delete it and start over? Preserve it as is? Preserve some of it? On the one hand, I still stand behind much of what I said. On the other hand, my lack of diplomacy or subtlety bothers me now that I am no longer under such extreme stress. And if it bothers me, it was likely bothering other people.

I didn't delete anything. I have a lot of good information I want to preserve for people's use, and I have my entire writer's resume to redo, including a lot of link updating. Now that I have actual time to do so, I can handle all of this without a lot of lengthy delays.