I used my skillz and made a little something: The Scope Magazine

So. There have been many weeks of me complaining about how I have sooo much to do in regards to a super secret project, and today, it has finally launched itself into existance.

Go ahead, click on that. It totally works. I made it myself.

It's sort of a convoluted story, but a couple of months ago I was hanging out at the Accordian School in New London after the bars closed and got to talking with a guy I had seen around town but had never really met. He was talking about wanting to resurrect Scope Magazine, a locally printed lit mag that used to be really popular in New London and the surrounding towns. We talked for a few minutes about it (and I had never even heard of Scope Magazine before) and then Ian mentioned he wanted to get something set up on Wordpress, a website - a digital edition. 

So I said to him, oh yeah, I can totally do that. That will be fun. 

The rest is history. Honestly, I didn't think I'd hear from Ian after that night. I thought it was just a comment to just some guy I met. But then he contacted me on Facebook and was like, seriously? And I thought to myself, yeah. I've been wanting to do something like this for years. I've wanted to work on something big and important, and nothing every came up for me, and nothing that I tried to start on my own ever came to fruition. But here I am, the Managing Editor of an online literary magazine. 

There were some bumps in the road. Mainly, I haven't used Wordpress much in a couple of years and I found that when I was working on designing the site and adding content I was getting pissed off and sick of doing it before the site even launched. Then, last week, yeah, last week just before we were supposed to launch, I emailed Ian and said something along the lines of:

You know what? If I'm going to do this, I want to do it right the first time. But more importantly, I want to enjoy doing it. 

So, I switched to Squarespace. Because Squarespace is my jam.

There are kinks to work out. There is a ton of content to add. There are blogs to be created and images to be made and some branding to occur.. but it's out there, my little baby, or really, the little baby I had with a stranger, Ian. 

Dudes, I have a new job. Maybe one day, I'll even get paid for it.

Things I Think About Instead of Writing A Novel

(This is going to be rambly, fair warning)

A few days ago I made this new theme for my blog and then today (or a few days ago, because I wasn't paying close attention) Squarespace decides that it's going to release about a million new themes for me to tinker and play with and my promise to not change the look of the blog until the New Year is (almost) blown. The only reason it wasn't blown is because for some reason (probably the excitement over the new themes) Squarespace is being really slow today, so I got frustrated and stopped trying to tinker. Meanwhile though, I browsed other blogs and tried to decide on color combinations. I really like pink and green, those are my favorite colors, but when I see the two together all I can think is "WATERMELON" and I just, no. I like orange and turquoise blue, so I might try that, and I like this lime green and gray as well. I am also thinking of going three column and adding more content here. Yes, MORE.

I think about blogs and blogging a lot, as a writer. I've been posting more of my writing here, between VZFS, the poems, the Hannah sketches, and other random bits, and I feel like just organic blogging has fallen by the wayside. I never was one of those people who wanted to talk about what I do or what my kid does all day, but at the same time, sometimes I look at other people's blogs and feel bad that I don't post more pictures of Elise or document her or our lives better, because I am so obsessed with words and writing and I'm just not generally good at keeping up with the day to day. Like, I know I will look back and regret that I didn't write more about Daryl's campaign, and that I didn't write about solo trick-or-treating with Elise, or that I haven't updated anyone on the status of her schooling.. I guess basically what I am trying to say is that I have been thinking a lot lately about becoming a better blogger, and also the fact that NaBloPoMo has been SO much easier this month than NaNoWriMo, and I feel like I really DO after all this time have it in me to blog every day, or at least every other day, or a doctor's note. Also, I've been thinking about adding photo galleries. Maybe if I had them, I would take more pictures? I don't know.  

I've also been wanted to get started on my Life List, like the ULTIMATE MIGHTY LIFE LIST. I can't believe I haven't done it yet. There's that, and I have wanted to take on the 30 Days of Truth Challenge that was floating around the internet last year that I started but never finished. Maybe I could do that in December and have another month of blogging every day, but themed. See me trying to brainstorm my way to being a better blogger? Also, there could be Wordless Wednesdays (or almost Wordless Wednesdays, because I can't seem to shut up, especially today) and just more lists. I love lists! 

(Sorry to that one person who might visit my blog today and read this boring-ass post. Brain vomit.)

I actually just typed 'Brian vomit.' I miss Brian, I haven't hung out with him much in the last few weeks, but, you know, NaNoWriMo, which I am totally failing at right now (I can't even give you my current word count, because it will make this seem even more daunting and make me even more scared.)

Also, I have a splitting headache right now that seemed to get worse AFTER I took some medicine for it. Dangit.

Off to Alisha's tonight to do laundry, eat food, play with kids, and then back home to write write write until I pass out. Normally weeks pass by so fast, but this one seems to be dragging. I think it's because everything was so up in the air with Gary, and it's just not a normal week. I can't wait for the weekend, really I can't wait for Friday night when I know I can chug a Monster and stay up until the wee-est of the wee hours of the morning when the writing comes the best, and then sleep in on Saturday.....