Long time visitors are going to feel a bit disoriented, disappointed, disillusioned, or otherwise dissed today because the rest of my blog just disappeared. First let me apologize and assure you that this change was intentional and not the result of me screwing up my blog. You know, like all those other times in the past when I screwed it up.
Part of what motivated me to take this drastic step is that as I’ve moved this site from one host to the next, there’s always some sort of technical gotcha that’s made the transfer fail. Sure, I read the documentation and tried to follow the instructions, but it never really worked out like I hoped. The only time that didn’t happen is when the techs working for Infinity Cloud did the transfer for me, and those poor souls went out of business. (A damn shame, really, because they were great people to work with. (Not that my current host is bad, mind you. But they did make me do my own blog transfer, and look how that turned out. *Sighs*))
The rest of the times, the only reason I could still recover the site is that I never gave up on updating my mirror at the WP-hosted address. This recovery method has problems because when I import the files over to this site, I’m not actually importing the graphics to the new server. There’s now this forced connection between the two sites, and to fix that kind of thing would take a long time. I’m far behind on several other projects that should have been done already, so I’m not too keen to get all up in the guts of my blog to untwist the kinky bits of code.
The other reason is more a matter of my changing perspective. In the last few years, I’ve tended to look at some of my older rants and think, “Wow, I really was too pissed to think straight, wasn’t I?” Being angry is one thing, but being incoherent to the point where I can’t find the connection from one idea to the next is…well, it’s cringe inducing.
“But Zoe, some of your best hits were the incoherent rants!” you say. (And no joke, I have actually been told this on Twitter several times before, so for once, I’m not inventing a straw man to make my point.) That may be true, with slight emphasis on may, but in between my best hits were a lot of posts that, after years of distance, I now look at and sigh. They don’t truly reflect how I think about these topics now, or even if they still do, they’re not written with the kind of clarity I’d hoped to offer, being that I am a writer. Sure I could edit them, but again, I’m behind on work that needs doing, and curating all my past rants isn’t all that appealing. I’d much rather edit my early books for typos because that at least has some positive benefits for all parties concerned. Editing old rants just feels depressing.
So, I deleted the whole thing. I did have thoughts about keeping the last few months of reviews, just to have so back content to offer. But I decided that if people really needed to see my older book reviews, they’re all on Goodreads. The game reviews couldn’t be salvaged, but heck, it’s not like my reviews were all that important, you know? Most come months or years after a game release, so my post won’t be the deciding factor for most gamers’ purchases. It’s just my opinion of the stuff I play, and it’s not so important that I need to save any of it.
I also decided that I could make this a fresh new start, a reboot and redirection of my energies towards the things I’ve enjoyed most about blogging in the last couple of years. Which is to say, reviews and promotions of other peoples’ stuff. Sure, there’s going to be the occasional request to buy my latest book because self-promotion is a necessity for the self-published. But I like being able to use this space as a platform to highlight the art I’m consuming from other creators, even for the stuff I didn’t quite enjoy. In the past, that’s been mainly books and games, but moving ahead, I’d also like to highlight new bands and musicians, the rare movie I get out to see, and visual artists whose work has grabbed my attention. I’ll also be linking to videos on YouTube, though I think these will be links and not embedded videos so the creators get exposure for their other stuff.
A lot of this stuff won’t have full reviews. It will just be links to the thing I want you to see along with a little blurb like “go check this out.” I do still expect to do proper reviews for the games and books, but I feel less qualified to critique visual art and music in the same way. I know that I like stuff, but trying to put into words why always results in some stumbling and fumbling. So rather than try to explain why I like a thing, I’ll just point you to it. If you like it, great. If you don’t, well we all come to these things with our own perspectives, and that’s okay.
I do hope to invite some other folks over for guest posts or do interviews now and again. Variety is the spice of life, and I do like giving creators a place to reach new people. This will not be a regular thing, and depends entirely on whether I can find folks willing to indulge my questions about their stuff. I will try to avoid the usual questions like “Why do you do this thing?” or “What inspires you?” But I don’t expect to be more than a softball lobbing fan-girl, so it’s probably best not to expect anything too hard hitting or controversial. The only person I’m ever that hard on is myself.
Will there still be rants? Yes, most likely. There will also be links to stories that I feel are important and worthy of your attention, but I hope to make my thoughts on these topics more succinctly and perhaps with more coherence than in the past. Only time will tell if I’m able to accomplish this.
If you’re a long-time reader, I hope you’ll stick with me through this reboot, and if you’re a new reader, welcome to my blog. Thank you one and all for visiting my little nook in the web, and if you like my site, maybe consider checking out the store and buying one of my books. Or don’t if they’re not your thing. That’s totally cool, too. Either way, thanks for stopping by.