Dear Faithful: I felt like I need to explain the volley of cryptic tweets about Writing Stuff I'm Working On, if for no other reason than to release some cranial pressure. The need to vent a bit about Hush Hush projects is strong. So!
1. The DadCentric Relaunch: We're rapidly approaching the end of our 6th year, and for some time I've felt that something was...off. For me, it was a combination of Dad Blogging Burnout (I wrote dad stuff for about a year prior to launching DadCentric) and a growing sense of dismay over where the Dad-blog-o-sphere is heading. Piss-poor writing and blatant product shilling seem to be the order of the day.
It got bad, folks. As in "I sent an email to the DadCentric Gang telling them I was so sick of it all that I was seriously considering shutting the site down" bad.
But cooler heads prevailed. The guys talked me down off of that ledge. And the brainstorming began. What do we like? What do we hate? What's not being done? And what can we do to push - no, rip apart and burn - the dadblogging envelope that in many ways DadCentric helped create? (I realize that I just gave my three favorite trolls some ammo. Well, it's not bragging if it's true.)
The guys came up with some fantastic ideas. I took a look at some of my favorite sites - none of which have anything to do with fatherhood - and added that inspiration to the mix. We're putting all that stuff together and building out DadCentric 3.0 even as I type this. I don't have an exact relaunch date yet, but it will happen before the year ends. There will be some new voices, some changes with some of our veterans, and a bunch of new features. And I think you'll be surprised at where we're going.
2. The Book Project
Inspiration's a weird thing. One day I'm sitting in my office doing work, and a song comes up on the Blip stream...and the next thing you know, I'm banging out a book proposal. I'm putting the finishing touches on that proposal, and am looking for an agent. I'm in that early stage paranoia, where I'm convinced that if I tell everyone what I'm up to someone will snatch the idea. What I can tell you is that the book has nothing to do with fatherhood; it's a surfing memoir/travelogue, and will touch on pop culture, California, and myths versus reality. When I came up with the idea, I almost felt stupid that I hadn't thought of it before. But now's the time for it.
And that's where I'm at.
