Quick announcement
today…
As
apple pie
That’s the challenge
for Local
Friends for Local Business this month.
The basic idea is
to pick things celebration-related. So, if you live outside
the United States and July 4th or summer fun don’t have the
same impact, think about celebrations and vacations and so on.
Inside the United
States—think the “…as American as apple pie” expression—we’re
looking forward to celebrations this month, adding in a touch
of summer fun, and swirling it all together for those things
that seem exciting and definitely special.
Grilling in the
yard with some friends before heading out to enjoy some fireworks…
taking off for the annual family-driven, long-weekend, vacation
to the beach… a shop in town and their celebrated red, white
and blue event…
What are you doing
for special moments? And, in many ways, what is everyone else
doing? These are not the available every day activities. These
are the campfires and reunions and destination wanderings to
places you look forward to reaching whenever you can.
I expect to be back
in the next day or two, but I’m working on getting some pages
on the web site flipped to July, finishing the next edition
of A
Parkside View for release, and wrapping
up a handful of essays to post. My goal is to have everything
up to speed, including four or five new pieces in place, no
later than the end of this weekend.
And…
that’s it. June is over.
If
not the slowest month in the history of the web site, then combine
it with May and it has easily been the slowest two-month run in
the history of the web site. (Actually… don’t even try researching
it… I’m certain it was the slowest month since we began.)
My
initial thoughts revolved around apologies. But, there were a
few problems with that…
Basically,
the past two months have been ridiculously busy on several fronts.
Some personal. Some professional. Many even involving writing.
Tricky part was, based on priorities and necessity, item after
item after item kept taking me away from Backpackville. Simply
couldn’t produce material for the web site. Even got dragged to
a complete stop when it came to the June edition of A
Parkside View. (That came out yesterday.
And, good news, the July edition will be out in a couple of days.)
All
of this means I did feel bad, and wanted to apologize, but… since
I couldn’t get to the computer to post things, I had a bit of
time to reflect, and I realized two things…
First,
there was nothing to apologize for. This was the tough one to
accept. I hear from people looking for new material. Many visitors
have become true friends over the years. It is amazing—and I am
grateful for this—to have people that are looking forward to reading
what I produce. So, I do appreciate that not getting material
out there is in many ways a letdown. But when I think of what
happened and what was accomplished, there was nothing that happened
over the roughly eight weeks I’ve been sidelined from The ‘ville
that I would have pushed back. It all needed to get done. Unfortunate
break, yes. But a necessary break, and one that doesn’t require
an apology. Which leads to…
Second,
the best way to approach all of it is to use it as a bit of a
reset. Deep breaths taken… other issues addressed… get back to
it. And on that front, rather than saying sorry for weeks of downtime
around In My Backpack, we’re going to move into a new
wave of activity and production.
I
expect to post a minimum of thirty new essays during the month
of July. (Hoping to clear that mark easily, but that’s my bottom-line
target.)
I
have some new projects in development, including a few interviews.
Not sure when they’ll be ready… hoping for one or two in July,
but August might be more realistic for these to begin arriving…
I am definitely excited about them.
And
there’s more.
So…
welcome to July here in Backpackville. Thanks for the support,
and THANKS for stopping in. (See you again soon.)
Melissa
McCarthy playing the role of Ursula in The
Little Mermaid remake currently ramping up production? Ok.
Sure. I could find myself very happy about that.
I
was pleasantly surprised by Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.
And now we are getting some clips
and trailers and more for the sequel, Jumanji:
The Next Level.