Blogrise, Blogset

I first started blogging just over eight years ago. In my very first post, I wrote about having realized that without ever planning to do it, I'd become an erstwhile writer. An ex-writer. A used-to. And at that moment, I decided that I wanted to be a writer again -- and that blogging the process might be a good way to help me keep on track.

Over the past eight years, the blogging has been hit-and-miss. I wrote 19 posts in April, 2006, my first month of blogging, a number that I would barely achieve most years thereafter.

But the rest of my writing? That went rather better.

Since the first post, I joined a writers group. I've written two screenplays, and started a third, and realized that I didn't want to be a screenwriter. Xeno's Arrow, the comic I created and published with the inestimable Greg Beettam, appeared on the (sadly now defunct) webcomics hub, Modern Tales. With the equally-inestimable Patrick Heinicke, I created a new webcomic, Cold Iron Badge, which also appeared on Modern Tales and on our own site. That project was not only incredibly fun, it inspired me to write my first novel, which shares a world with the comic (but no characters; it quickly went off in an entirely different direction). I've written a bunch of short stories, stories that I've been confident enough in to submit them to professional markets. None has sold yet, but I'm not giving up. And last November, I successfully completed NaNoWriMo with my second novel, a work-still-in-progress called Nobody's Watching. 

I'm still not a professional writer (though the definition of professional is pretty ambiguous in webcomics), but you know what I'm not?

I'm not an erstwhile writer anymore.

And as such, I've been feeling, increasingly strongly lately, that where I am, and what I want to talk about, doesn't really fit with a blog called Back From Erstwhile. It's been fun, at least when I haven't felt guilty about my wildly erratic posting schedule, and it's been an important part of the road back. 

But I think, rather than try to re-purpose a blog that's had its day, and it's time to let it end. 

As one blog ends, another begins, the circle of blogging life. Please join me at my new blog, Stephen Geigen-Miller. Yes, I just used my own name, for reasons that I'll get into in my first post over there. 

And please join me in raising a glass to Back From Erstwhile, a blog that succeeded in its mission and can now enjoy a much-deserved retirement. 

Thanks for being here with me and being part of this phase of my journey. Now, it's time for the next step. Onward!