1. WordPress
I have finally moved my entire website into WordPress, so I can update it regularly, and I’m very excited about that! I’ll be posting latest news and events on the Home page and upcoming classes on the Classes page.
2. MailChimp
I’ve also moved the Writerland blog subscription from Feedburner to MailChimp, so if it looks a little different in your inbox, that’s why. Subscribing allows you to receive Writerland posts by email and the Writerland Newsletter, which comes out every two to three months and includes links to upcoming classes and other content that’s not on the blog.
3. 31 Great Places to Publish Personal Essays
I have updated my popular “20 Great Places to Publish Personal Essays” post to make it “31 Great Places to Publish Personal Essays” (eventually it will be 50) to eliminate the publications that have gone out of business and to add new publications and update links. It is now downloadable as a PDF for anyone who subscribes to Writerland (see the righthand sidebar.)
4. Writing
I am working on a new book! It’s nonfiction and, due to the amount of research I’ve been doing, I’ve been blogging less frequently than I did for the six years since I started Writerland. I’m keeping a private blog to keep track of my research, and it’s been too much for me to maintain both every week. So while I plan to continue to blog on Writerland, I’ll sometimes be posting every other week instead of every week.
5. Hacked
Last August my blog was hacked. I was unable to log in to it at all, and because I was traveling and busy with kids home from school for the summer, it took me a while to figure out what had happened and to hire someone to fix it. It’s fixed now, so I can blog again!
6. Spam
I was getting so many spam comments that I decided to change my settings to automatically close comments after a post is up for 60 days. That way I can avoid having to go back and delete spam comments on older posts and just keep an eye on the latest posts.
7. AWP
I went to AWP in Los Angeles last week and have a lot to share! I’ll be posting about it in the coming weeks.
I hope everyone is having a great spring and getting a lot of writing done. I’d love to hear what you’re up to. What are you reading? What are you writing? What’s your latest obsession? How’s life?
It is very interesting know about your blog . The changes you are done is so cool.
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Congrats on porting your website to WordPress! I have a few sites running on the WP platform. Once you get the hang of administering a WP site, a lot of powerful options are at your fingertips.
The Akismet anti-spam plugin, which should have come along with your WP installation, will manage the majority of spammy comments for you, once you activate the plugin.
Hi Rob, my blog has been in WordPress for years, so I’m familiar with the platform, but it’s great to have my whole website in WP now, so I can keep every page updated, and not just my blog. Surprisingly, I’ve been using Akismet this whole time (and am using it now), and it doesn’t block all of the spam comments. At least now I’ll only have to watch out for new spam on my most recent posts.
Hi Meghan – How can I get 31 Great Places to Publish Personal Essays if I am already a subscriber to your blog? I always enjoy your posts. Thanks,
Geoffrey – email me at meghan (at) meghanward (dot) com and I’ll send you a copy.
I wondered what had happened! My blog got hacked, too. Very upsetting. I moved it to WordPress.org, but I’m finding it actually is more of a target for hackers than before. Thinking of moving back to Blogger. Blogger’s spam filter works pretty well, but both sites let some through. Spammers learn tricks to get around the filters. Good idea to close comments on old posts. People can always email if they have a question about an older post.
Hi Anne,
For some reason I also got locked out of Intense Debate, which I was using for commenting software, so I couldn’t only delete the most recent spam comments. Annoying! But I’m glad it’s all fixed now. I look forward to reading your blog again!
Congrats on your new website! I have the same question–and praise!–as Geoffrey W.
Hi Lisa,
Email me at meghan (at) meghanward (dot) com and I’ll email you a copy.
Meghan
Meghan, I bought “Runway: Confessions of a not-so-supermodel” last night and finished it this morning. Enjoyed it very much!
Lisa, I’m sorry I didn’t see your comment sooner. Thanks for reading Runway! I’m so glad you liked it.