k, I received a letter from someone who had written for this site back when it was a full-on webzine with multiple writers on the masthead and me as the editor.
It started out amiably enough with the usual pleasantries: They hoped I was well. They really liked working here. They missed everybody and thought the virtual press room we shared was a blast. Then they cut to the chase and sked if I ever considered reviving the old Zen Dixie.
Is it ever a good idea to get the band back together and hit the road? We saw how The Blues Brothers ended.
Oh, you sweet Summer child.
No.
I've mostly tried to put a happy face on the years that this was a collaborative effort. Mostly. As editor, the majority of my time was spent in stewardship to everyone else's visual and written work. This was not a bad thing, but it wasn't what I intended and it wore me out.
It was also educational.
I learned I wasn't so special that someone who had proved to be untrustworthy at one website wouldn't be just as treacherous to me. (You know those stories of girls who tame the one wild horse/dog/juvenile delinquent no one else could handle? I thought that was me.)
Compulsive liars gonna lie. I stayed up one night because a writer suicide baited me then admitted that she spent the night on the couch watching Dawson's Creek with her mom while I frantically searched for resources for her in her province. Every one of er essays brought emails from people who were hurt and angered by the lies she wrote. Later on, she would lie to former editors and colleagues, telling them things I'd never said or done.
There was the writer who kept requesting I buy a subscription to Getty Images so she could have pictures worthy of her essays. Yes, her essays were beautiful, but it was out of our budget with me already paying for webhosting, domain registration, UCANN, and so on. I found a museum that offered an exhaustive archive and even a standing press pass for her. A month after I shuttered the website, I started getting letters from Getty's lawyers. This was no scam and they weren't playing. It turned out that writer lied and kept stealing from Getty and I was on the hook for thousands of dollars. There was no way this person could have paid it or even helped. I emptied my savings and moved on.
Should I consider doing it all again? Another alum recenly disrupted my attempt at posting a playlist. I deleted her posts so I could finish and offered to let her to a guest list, explaining the structure, the time involved using multiple formats. etc. I told her to send me eight to eleven songs, She sent me twenty, most of which were unusable. tI put together a list and told her it would go live the following week. She decided to send me more songs. I told her the list was done. More songs. I finally had to ignore her. When the list went live, she went silent for a couple of weeks. Then she started interacting again, and gotgot ru.de I'd had enough, called her on it and she sent a long, long, long letter I deleted unread.
Everybody has their limits.
Wow. That's not even the complete list of reasons why friends here on the ground spent about a month helping me decompress after it was all over. When I told Dale this place was getting a shakedown and makeover, he reminded methat he knew where I lived and I'd better NOT take on a masthead this time. He would be very cross if I did.
Don't worry, Dale (and Faith, and Sarah, and Amy, and...) All I want to do is write. I don't even care any more if anyone reads it. In fact, I reckon most of it will go unread and that's fine.
Looking at my old blog, Confessions of a Cheesegrits Fiend, it struck me that I used to write a lot more than I do now. This might be because the format was more plug and play. All I had to do was sit down and write. No SEO, no layout, no trying to place pages. As I moved (and am still moving as of this writing) all of those essays over, I wondered if I quit worrying about descrete pages and just blogged; would it make me feel more inclined to write? None of what sucks the joy out of just putting words to the screen. Right now the plan is to create a handful of blogs based on things that interest me and a place for what I wrote for Cheesegrits, The Comedy Patio, and The East Nashville Farmer's Market Blog. Will it work? I guess time will tell.
It started out amiably enough with the usual pleasantries: They hoped I was well. They really liked working here. They missed everybody and thought the virtual press room we shared was a blast. Then they cut to the chase and sked if I ever considered reviving the old Zen Dixie.
Is it ever a good idea to get the band back together and hit the road? We saw how The Blues Brothers ended.
Oh, you sweet Summer child.
No.
I've mostly tried to put a happy face on the years that this was a collaborative effort. Mostly. As editor, the majority of my time was spent in stewardship to everyone else's visual and written work. This was not a bad thing, but it wasn't what I intended and it wore me out.
It was also educational.
I learned I wasn't so special that someone who had proved to be untrustworthy at one website wouldn't be just as treacherous to me. (You know those stories of girls who tame the one wild horse/dog/juvenile delinquent no one else could handle? I thought that was me.)
Compulsive liars gonna lie. I stayed up one night because a writer suicide baited me then admitted that she spent the night on the couch watching Dawson's Creek with her mom while I frantically searched for resources for her in her province. Every one of er essays brought emails from people who were hurt and angered by the lies she wrote. Later on, she would lie to former editors and colleagues, telling them things I'd never said or done.
There was the writer who kept requesting I buy a subscription to Getty Images so she could have pictures worthy of her essays. Yes, her essays were beautiful, but it was out of our budget with me already paying for webhosting, domain registration, UCANN, and so on. I found a museum that offered an exhaustive archive and even a standing press pass for her. A month after I shuttered the website, I started getting letters from Getty's lawyers. This was no scam and they weren't playing. It turned out that writer lied and kept stealing from Getty and I was on the hook for thousands of dollars. There was no way this person could have paid it or even helped. I emptied my savings and moved on.
Should I consider doing it all again? Another alum recenly disrupted my attempt at posting a playlist. I deleted her posts so I could finish and offered to let her to a guest list, explaining the structure, the time involved using multiple formats. etc. I told her to send me eight to eleven songs, She sent me twenty, most of which were unusable. tI put together a list and told her it would go live the following week. She decided to send me more songs. I told her the list was done. More songs. I finally had to ignore her. When the list went live, she went silent for a couple of weeks. Then she started interacting again, and gotgot ru.de I'd had enough, called her on it and she sent a long, long, long letter I deleted unread.
Everybody has their limits.
Wow. That's not even the complete list of reasons why friends here on the ground spent about a month helping me decompress after it was all over. When I told Dale this place was getting a shakedown and makeover, he reminded methat he knew where I lived and I'd better NOT take on a masthead this time. He would be very cross if I did.
Don't worry, Dale (and Faith, and Sarah, and Amy, and...) All I want to do is write. I don't even care any more if anyone reads it. In fact, I reckon most of it will go unread and that's fine.
Looking at my old blog, Confessions of a Cheesegrits Fiend, it struck me that I used to write a lot more than I do now. This might be because the format was more plug and play. All I had to do was sit down and write. No SEO, no layout, no trying to place pages. As I moved (and am still moving as of this writing) all of those essays over, I wondered if I quit worrying about descrete pages and just blogged; would it make me feel more inclined to write? None of what sucks the joy out of just putting words to the screen. Right now the plan is to create a handful of blogs based on things that interest me and a place for what I wrote for Cheesegrits, The Comedy Patio, and The East Nashville Farmer's Market Blog. Will it work? I guess time will tell.
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