The End of an Era

Today marks the end of one my favorite internet haunts, Shadowmarch. Well not really an end as much as a rebirth.

I stumbled across Shadowmarch while surfing for information on my favorite author, Tad Williams. What I discovered was a site that Tad had started as an experiment. He had decided to write a book online and in episodes. For a yearly fee that was the equivalent of a purchasing a hard cover book people read along with each installment, even having the opportunity to provide Tad with feedback. I must admit, sadly, that I was not one of those people that purchased the online 'pass'. I did, however, jump at the chance to sign up on the message boards.

As I perused those boards I discovered that Tad, supposedly, would frequently post etc on this site. I had my doubts. How could such a well established a busy author find the time to peruse and post responses to things put out there by random people across the internet ether? I actually am still not sure of the answer to that question, but he does nonetheless.

I remember posting a simple message saying how much I loved his work and had thoroughly enjoyed his series Otherland. I even took the time to point out one of my favorite sections. To my shock, he actually responded to my post some 15 minutes later. It wasn't even just a simple thank you either. I was more impressed with an author that I didn't think I could be any more impressed with at that point, and I have lurked on the S'March boards ever since.

The Shadowmarch experiment ended up not working out and has since seen its rebirth as a traditional series available at your local bookstore (if you haven't read them yet, the ones that are out any way, you are sorely missing out on fabulous experience), the message boards lived becoming a crazy carnival of interesting people, interesting topics and always a high level of zaniness. I myself did not post that often, but I lurked constantly.

All that being said, Tad has an exciting new website with a lot of interesting things to ogle. Oh and the message board lives on, it just has a new house and new clothes. Check it out!

All this talk of new beginnings also brings to mind another website (hint: the one you are reading now) that has been in sore need of a rebirth. So I have changed the look, updated things and made a resolution to become diligent in my blogging. I even opened up a flikr account.