Beginning to once again publish on a blog that I have let fall into dormancy feels like it requires some sort of, I don't know — explanation? Reintroduction? Apology? Just starting back up as if I'd Rip Van Winkled the previous six years would be weird, no? Plus, what I was posting here just before my unplanned hiatus (primarily links to other blogs writing about words and language) isn't what I want to continue into the future.
Which leads to (but doesn't technically beg) the question: Well, Andy, what do you want to do with this space? Now that you're back, or at least trying to be, what are you going to do with your little corner of the internet?
That's a good question. I'm good at asking good questions. But I don't have an answer just yet.
Here's a question I can answer: Why are you coming back now, doofus?
Those who know me as a person rather than a blogger have probably heard by now that my time at The Saturday Evening Post is ending soon. Both subscriptions and advertising have done nothing but fall, and costs have done nothing but rise, so continuing to publish a print magazine isn't financially feasible. The print magazine is 80% of what I do at the Post and 100% of what I was hired to do. We're working on our final issue now, a special edition that will be available in January, and then, when December ends, so will my employment at The Saturday Evening Post.
So, yes, I'm losing my job (don't cry for me, South American country). I am also losing the eight hours a day I now spend trekking through word forests, following etymological and editorial trails through woody prose, delighting in the beautiful sounds and colors of delicate writing, hunting down the elusive yeti that is that one perfect word, and stretching nature metaphors beyond any legitimate literary merit.
Therein lies the first reason for my renewed interest in this here blog: I will need it as an outlet. A place not only to keep me enveloped in editorial pursuits (I could do that offline, after all), but also to keep me connected with other word-minded people, and to continue to contribute in my small way to the editorial sphere.
The second reason is more practical: I'mma be lookin' for a job. I could end up at Costco, but I'm hoping to stay in publishing somewhere. Logophilius is an advertisement for yours truly, but I'm not trying to sell the me from the height of COVID. I need to get the new me out there.
(Related: For the life of me I can't figure out how to edit what's on those tabs at the top of the blog — the "Bucket List" and "Other Great Blogs" and that tab that goes to my website, which has also lain dormant. If you can help me out, please leave a comment.)
On the subject of my future: I have a Plan A. It feels like a longshot, and even if it works out, it won't yield results for another ten months at least. (More details later when I feel more comfortable putting it out there.) That means not only that I need a Plan B, but that I need to add to Plan A some way to secure income and health insurance through at least the first two-thirds of 2027.
As for the future of this blog: I'm not sure yet where it'll go. I am definitely coming back to fiction writing, and I'll be connecting (and reconnecting) with other writers and editors here on the interwebs. But what that will look like here on Logophilius I do not know. Not yet.
Watch, as they say, this space.