endlesslyrocking
and end to endlessly rocking
posted 11 September 2007, Tuesday
A few months ago, I incorrectly read a notice from Blog-City, which misreading led me to think that free, public access to their blogs would quickly come to an end. With that in mind, I set up shop for a while over at Wordpress. Configurations of Glory, the blog that resulted, is still up and running, but I haven't posted anything over there since, I think, April. You see, I just needed to bring ER to a proper conclusion, and once I realized that I had indeed misread things, I returned as your humble narrator for a few more months of ER looniness.
Well, I can now report with certainty that December 31 is the deadline, if you will, for ER. At that point, all free blogging on Blog-City will come to an end, and so, therefore, will Endlessly Rocking. You may have noticed that I have created an archive going all the way back to March 2004 - this has allowed me to begin compiling Word files of all the posts I wish to keep. I've been at it for a few days, and have about 120 single-spaced pages of material to work through. Some of this will find its way, in somewhat altered form, into a book tentatively entitled Journal of an Ecclesial Wanderer; I'm not sure about that, however, inasmuch as 'ecclesial' might not be the right word. Perhaps I need no modifier - I seem to be a wanderer simpliciter. This makes sense, you know. After all, 'a wandering Aramaen was my father...'. Well. I've also considered A Beggar's Notebook. In any case, this is wildly presumptuous - in sales we call it 'being assumptive' - given that I have no evidence that there would be any interest in such a book, nor do I know how to generate such interest.
In any case, it occured to me last night that, poetry aside, ER, along with its ancestral blogs A Foot in the Bosporus and Rome on the Bosporus, has been the focus of my writerly energies for nearly four years. It has provided me with a relatively safe place to work out some of the mess that followed in the wake of the period from '97-'03, which saw my seminary career come to an ignominious, if needful, end; the implosion of a marriage; and the death of my mother and the subsequent loss of any ties to my home town. I have also had time and opportunity to reflect through practice on just what I want to do as a writer and where I should be in the wider ecclesial world. [I'll have something to say on that as we near The End.]
More important than that, ER has allowed me to inflict a steady stream of prose and poetry on an unwitting world without the fuss and bother of query letters and agents and the other hassles of being a real freelance author. Alas and alack, this too must go the way of the world. By the time ER comes to a close and vanishes from sight, it will be time for me to move on with life. I will have to make do with the convoluted world of Publishing House Rules. Now, I know how to do that with poetry, but how one does that for prose centered on what is to the wider public an arcane matter of private lunacy, all with no credentials and no credibility outside the dozen or so regular readers of one's blog, is beyond me. Still, it should be fun finding out...
So, consider this my official annoucement that Endlessly Rocking ain't so endless. I will, in the coming weeks, pause to reflect from time to time on those I have met along the way. Looking through the archives has brought healthy reminders of those to whom I owe thanks for many and various kindnesses, even in the midst of disagreements and sometimes fractious argument. Karl Thiennes, FDN, C Parks, have especially been on my mind of late, as it has been too long since I reached out to 'em. I hope they are well.
Well, that's enough sentimental drivel. December 31 is the official end of Blogdom-Free Blog-City, so let's just say that some time in the week preceeding that date I will sign off for good. That works out just fine - it was around December 26 or 27 of 2003 that I fired up the first blog. As for the Other Blog I currently own, perhaps I'll rent it out to a struggling immigrant writer who likes to read Paul in Greek...
Peace out for now.
Well, I can now report with certainty that December 31 is the deadline, if you will, for ER. At that point, all free blogging on Blog-City will come to an end, and so, therefore, will Endlessly Rocking. You may have noticed that I have created an archive going all the way back to March 2004 - this has allowed me to begin compiling Word files of all the posts I wish to keep. I've been at it for a few days, and have about 120 single-spaced pages of material to work through. Some of this will find its way, in somewhat altered form, into a book tentatively entitled Journal of an Ecclesial Wanderer; I'm not sure about that, however, inasmuch as 'ecclesial' might not be the right word. Perhaps I need no modifier - I seem to be a wanderer simpliciter. This makes sense, you know. After all, 'a wandering Aramaen was my father...'. Well. I've also considered A Beggar's Notebook. In any case, this is wildly presumptuous - in sales we call it 'being assumptive' - given that I have no evidence that there would be any interest in such a book, nor do I know how to generate such interest.
In any case, it occured to me last night that, poetry aside, ER, along with its ancestral blogs A Foot in the Bosporus and Rome on the Bosporus, has been the focus of my writerly energies for nearly four years. It has provided me with a relatively safe place to work out some of the mess that followed in the wake of the period from '97-'03, which saw my seminary career come to an ignominious, if needful, end; the implosion of a marriage; and the death of my mother and the subsequent loss of any ties to my home town. I have also had time and opportunity to reflect through practice on just what I want to do as a writer and where I should be in the wider ecclesial world. [I'll have something to say on that as we near The End.]
More important than that, ER has allowed me to inflict a steady stream of prose and poetry on an unwitting world without the fuss and bother of query letters and agents and the other hassles of being a real freelance author. Alas and alack, this too must go the way of the world. By the time ER comes to a close and vanishes from sight, it will be time for me to move on with life. I will have to make do with the convoluted world of Publishing House Rules. Now, I know how to do that with poetry, but how one does that for prose centered on what is to the wider public an arcane matter of private lunacy, all with no credentials and no credibility outside the dozen or so regular readers of one's blog, is beyond me. Still, it should be fun finding out...
So, consider this my official annoucement that Endlessly Rocking ain't so endless. I will, in the coming weeks, pause to reflect from time to time on those I have met along the way. Looking through the archives has brought healthy reminders of those to whom I owe thanks for many and various kindnesses, even in the midst of disagreements and sometimes fractious argument. Karl Thiennes, FDN, C Parks, have especially been on my mind of late, as it has been too long since I reached out to 'em. I hope they are well.
Well, that's enough sentimental drivel. December 31 is the official end of Blogdom-Free Blog-City, so let's just say that some time in the week preceeding that date I will sign off for good. That works out just fine - it was around December 26 or 27 of 2003 that I fired up the first blog. As for the Other Blog I currently own, perhaps I'll rent it out to a struggling immigrant writer who likes to read Paul in Greek...
Peace out for now.