We are coming up on the 11th (!
) anniversary of this site in the next week or so.
This past year it was time for me to get a new debit card. I try to remember to change the details in all the sites that I pay that way, but it's hard to get them all. One I missed was the host for bransomtx(dot)com - the site where all my Bransom stories are stored in chronological order (as well as a few pages about our local schools, a quick tour of our home, the History of the area which I call Bransom, and descriptions of how we decorate for our major holidays). Besides those, there's a gallery of poser art by t-big
http://www.bransomtx.com/Gallery/ . Leti and I also started working on a biography section there, but that went by the wayside the way so many other side projects do when one or the other of us got too busy or distracted.
The point is that the site got left out of updates with my new card. I vaguely remember them sending me a note that they'd not been able to process the payment, but it was at a time when I was dealing with a lot of stuff and was very stressed out. I guess I forgot about it, and the next I knew I was getting a notice that they were about to close the site.
I seriously considered allowing it.
While it doesn't cost much to keep the site going, it's been 2 1/2 years since I've written a new story to go there (for a lot of reasons). Almost all the traffic that does land there seems to be either spiders (for search engines) or maybe people looking at t_bigs poser albums (which are worth a look).
The thing is, I only had about four days to decide, and I hate making a rushed decision. So, instead of letting it lapse, I've decided to make one more try. That site will stay up for one more year, and I'll see what I can do with it.
My top hope is to establish a new forum there, so no one will be able to erase many years worth of material - some of it irreplaceable.
I also hope to get back to work on the bio pages and see if we can't get those up and running while some of my kids are still minors.
I'm not going to hold my breath about actually writing again. We were discussing that in chat today, and there are a number of reasons that might not happen again.
Speaking of writing, I'm actually doing some right now - for next years Christmas Serial.
At this point, we're using the working title A Christmas Quartet (thanks Zac). We already have four chapters more or less ready to post, and I'm hoping to finish the fifth this afternoon.
I think there's a reason for this. As much as I love Christmas, it's very stressful. Starting with Thanksgiving, I have a ton of extra kids around the house (college, extended family, and friends), we have all the decorations, gifts, a rush at the stores, finals, and parties. This year was even worse, thanks to the insurance companies timing with Mom's storm damage.
It can be very demanding.
Now, Christmas has passed, but I still have the kids around and the Christmas decorations up (we'll take them down Monday morning). I also don't have to deal with the deadlines. That makes for the right atmosphere, but a lot less pressure. At this point, I actually have more chapters planned than we normally take days to schedule them, and my beta readers and I have discussed a couple of possible solutions. The good news is, I'm writing and having fun doing it, so we can hope that gets me back into the habit of working more on the forum and site.