These last few months I’ve been giving my blog a facelift. I played around with about a dozen different color schemes in a dozen different templates. Widgets were added, moved, deleted, and added again. And my About Me page has undergone extensive editing.

 Why so much fuss?

 Well, in retrospect, I realized that I was experiencing several changes professionally and personally. I was promoted to assistant editor last September and have been receiving invitations to attend conferences and publishing events since then. Most of these events ask for a suitable head shot, which I did not have. I provided a drive-by head shot that a good friend of mine took on their iPhone at a book store,  but I wanted to have a stronger photo on standby–one that aspiring writers and publishing professionals would look at and think “I bet that lady knows what she’s talking about!”. Meanwhile, I saw that many of the publishing people I was attending these events with not only had head shots already, but websites—professional-looking ones. Their websites are where they keep their fancy head shots and easy-to-find 100-word bios ready for any and all events. That meant one thing: I needed an online space to keep my stuff, too.

Personally, I wanted an online space where I could share a variety of content, not just my doodles and random poems. Last Halloween I started this epic blog post about how I made my workspace both fun and functional. It’s about 1000 words long and has photos. I’m really proud of it. So proud, that the thought of posting this big, beautiful blog post I had worked diligently on for two months onto a blog I wasn’t proud to share with others was a sign to me that I needed to make changes.

 With professional and personal pursuits aligned, I’ve been revamping the look of my blog as well as its purpose. I want this to be a space where I can share my experiences as someone who has a foot on either side of the publishing line. I needed a head shot and a banner to reflect that, so I called the experts, two special and creative friends who graciously use their talents to help others. I’d like to give a BIG thanks to photographer Lloyd Campbell for helping me with my head shot, and illustrator/designer Abhi Alwar for the beautiful banner. They helped bring this new vision for my blog to life! Now I have an online space to display my awesome head shot, professional bio, and share all things about writing and publishing.

 You can check out Lloyd’s photography on his website: lloydcphotography.com

And Abhi’s work on her website: abhialwar.com