This is officially the last column on AmyCCollins.com.
Sorry to be a little dramatic about it, but I thought I'd cut to chase.
AmyCCollins.com has been around since 2008, started first as a travel blog, back when I thought I'd be a travel writer. Then it became a random essay sort of blog, with many features about food and local purveyors and a go-to web address for published clips, supporting my freelance writer career. Gradually it became the once weekly column it has been for over two years now. Every Monday, a column, on whatever was present and calling at the time.
Mable was born here via cartoon friday. She has her own blog now, her own shop, her own brand, and she's doing just fine.
I've written this Monday column for two years and two months, a shallow commitment, maybe, but when it comes to jobs and relationships, that's a long time for me. And this blog has been both a job and a relationship.
While I'm super excited about my next project, I can't help but feel, surprisingly, a little sad to say goodbye to this one. As usual, that surprise is naive (after a certain age, aren't all surprises naive?) This blog has helped me learn to sit down every week, to put the fear and doubt aside and put together some semblance of cohesive thoughts on life, living, human existence. It has taught me in many ways to write, that thing I most wanted to do. It's sort of like a first boyfriend. You never forget the first.
I've written on so many subjects I can't even begin to categorize them all. In short, this blog is a collection of essays. Hits and misses, most of these posts have been written in a matter of a couple hours, first drafts at best, with minimal (too often too minimal) editing before hitting publish. It wasn't that way in the beginning. When I first started writing the trip was laborious and torturous. I'd spend an entire day working on a column, and half that day staring out the window or searching the Internet. After a while I stopped worrying if my posts were "good" or "valid" or "liked". I stopped worrying whether or not anyone was actually reading. It became solidly an activity in love and passion, a commitment to produce and practice what my soul has pushed for all my life.
Is it a mistake to forget the reader? Not always. Sometimes the readers are silent. Sometimes the unseen and invisible readers take the shape of imagined naysayers. Even as I prepare to launch my new writing project hateful conversations form in my head, you can't do this bounces around, spoken by a perceived nemesis, though I realize it's only me telling myself I can't. If nothing else, this blog has taught me I can. We all can.
I have much thanks to bestow on the many, many readers, loyal, regular and occasional, silent and spoken, for being there along the way. If Thomas Merton is right, that our failures are all our failures, that our successes are all our successes, then this column project is your success, too. Thank you. And congratulations.
So what's this crazy, exciting new project? you ask.
Well, it's many things.
Its is a writing project, more focused and more defined than the one we're saying goodbye to today.
It is a place for me to mash up all my interests. Like you haven't done that already? you say, sarcastically. No. I haven't. Not exactly. Not in the way I now imagine.
It's going to be a greater challenge and a deeper commitment, a branching out and a growth from the present, now past, project.
There will be more features and more frequent posts than just the once-a-week lengthy written word, though for you avid readers, that weekly post will remain, in a different form, just not on Mondays.
There will be lots of gorgeous photos, and at some point I expect, illustrations.
There will be a STRONG emphasis on FOOD. + Wine.
I hope for a more open environment, more give and take, through commentary, shared experiences and guest bloggers.
I hope, during the learning process, as with all new endeavors, that it will get better and better with each week, each post, and that I will continue to hone my craft and learn more about myself and this crazy world we're in.
And I hope you will join me there.
The next couple of weeks will be dedicated to blog design and feature refinement as the initial structure of the project continues to come together. I'll keep you posted and let you know when we're up and running.
Cheers, Peace, and all the best to you,
P.S. If you're thinking, oh shit, I missed a few posts I'd really like to read. No worries. The archives will remain. Come by anytime and read your heart out. Heck, send me a note and share your thoughts! (especially if it's praise, that's my favorite kind of email).
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