Time for a restart.

Hello, friend. I'm glad you're here. For once, this update isn't about writing.

Over the past year, my life has changed wildly. My husband has become disabled; this is a double challenge because I'm chronically ill, as you know if you've followed this for any length of time. We've moved again, this time to Southern California. We've had job loss. Familial death. So many life changes that I honestly don't even know how to catalog them all.

It's not all negative, however. We celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary in the middle of all this. We now have THREE cats—a wee orange girl we've named Poppy adopted us, and is already part of the family. Speaking of family, moving closer has been the best possible thing we could have done; I am now a great aunt, and that's a really cool feeling. I've written three books this year, and I'm working on a fourth. In some very specific (limited but appreciated) ways, my health is better than it's ever been in my life. This is all good.

Cat tax!

So why the change? A celebration of what came before, and a challenge for my own future. One of the most important lessons I've ever learned in this crazy publishing business is that tools and platforms change all the time. Change doesn't threaten the work. It all comes down to whether we're willing to learn the new thing.

Well, friends, I'm learning the new thing. Welcome to Ghost.

Ghost is an open source content management system platform written in JavaScript and distributed under the MIT License, designed to simplify the process of online publishing for individual bloggers as well as online publications. (Wikipedia)

(If you're receiving this in your email, that's because I've moved everything over, including my newsletter service.)

I've been a site designer since the 1990s. Wordpress user since 2007. Well, due to personally dealing with all the issues listed here (thank you, driftingdesk), I finally got sick of it. It's time for an entirely new start, rebuilt from the ground up.

I still have all my old blog posts, but they're currently private. This really is meant to be a complete refresh—mentally, design-wise, and behind the scenes—which is why I'm changing my URL to ThisReidWrites.com. My posts going forward will not be just be book announcements. Friends, I'm going to blog.

Industry stuff. Writing thoughts. WIP snippets. Occasional religious rants. Website stuff. Marketing as I (re)learn it. Industry information. Observations on life in general. Personal Stuff™. Chronic illness and health issues. And more as I think of it. If I get brave, I'll even get (gasp) political.

You know. Blogging.

Will anyone care what I have to say? I don't think it matters. This is me putting thoughts down, trying to live like a good person, and encouraging others to do the same. I'm looking forward to this. I hope you are, too.

I'm still learning, and the site will be built out as I learn the new system. This is the best opportunity for us to learn and grow together. What will you learn this week? What old tool do you still use that really should be replaced?

You can do this. So can I. See you in the next post.