I’ve been having a love-hate relationship with this blog lately. I don’t feel connected to it. I have other projects that are interesting me far more than MissMeliss.com, and yet, I’m afraid to let go of a blog that has served me well since 2002. Conversations with good friends have me thinking that a new chalkboard is better than an erased chalkboard, and I’ve wanted a site that will lend itself more to my professional writing ambitions.

To that end, my good friend Clay accepted a pittance of a gift in exchange for taking an email of links and sources of inspiration, and turning them into the most beautiful template ever – he’s created something warm, welcoming, and sophisticated, with the rich reds and cafe colors that I love, and even wove in my own words. There’s no real content yet, just the stuff that comes with Joomla (an open-source content management system), but feel free to peek at the layout at MelissaBartell.com. I’ll be announcing it here when the site officially goes live, and doing my best to live up to the wonderful art that was used.

More Clay-inspired goodness comes in the form of software called Crossover, which allows Intel-based Macs to run Windows software without requiring a dual boot. I spent $60, and within fifteen minutes had Office XP up and running on my pink MacBook, which makes me happy, because while NeoOffice and the like are great, I find that I’m enough of a girl that I require Word’s pretty interface, and it’s really easier to have the same software on all machines. Or as near to it as possible.

As to Creativity….I’m burning with ideas but they’re not web-publishable, which is another reason I wanted a separate site, so I can just offer updates about what I’m working on, without publishing actual content. Mermaids, Chick-lit, Cafe Vignettes, and a Family Drama are among the projects in mind.

Wish me luck?