Spell… B-O-U-N-D is dead! Long live Spell… B-O-U-N-D!

Yes, one chapter is over, a new chapter begins. Spell… B-O-U-N-D has grown beyond the constrictions of WordPress.com and is now a self-hosted platform. It can only grow from here with the help of everyone that wishes to see it thrive.

I first began this journey into the world of blogs/personal sites in late December 2016, although the process that led to it was initiated many months before with constant nudges, indirect suggestions and the support of many people I consider friends. In order to respect their privacy, no names will be mentioned, but they know who they are.

The early days were rough. I didn’t really know what I was doing, and I kept fumbling on my attempts to get a good thing going. There was too much content lying around, and organizing it into something I deemed worthy of being shared with everyone was tough. I’m not going to tell you how many times I started and quitted along the way, only to try again shortly after, but they were a lot. There were many days when I didn’t want to do a thing, although I kept pushing forward, hoping for the barriers to break.

Eventually, they did, and an early incarnation of this project was unveiled at sbspellbound.wordpress.com. A few months later, this domain (sbspellbound.net) came into existence and, a couple of days before this post, I transferred it to an external server in order to be able to make my ideas for it grow. The original domain that started it all is still out there but if you try to access it now, you’ll only find a private blog. I’m going to keep it around for a while as I make sure that everything is working smoothly but, sooner or later, that first template will disappear as there’s really no point in maintaining two different versions.

By switching to WordPress.org, I’m now able to customize the look and the feel of Spell… B-O-U-N-D even further. I have more resources available which, in turn, make my creativity feel more alive. Knowing I can do more makes me want to do more and that’s what exactly what’s going to happen from now on. You’re all welcome to join the ride and see where it leads.

I’ve spent the last couple of days hard at work transferring and rebuilding things in order to reach an acceptable threshold for my current vision of this place. The basics are operational but there’s still a lot to be done in the following days, weeks, perhaps even months. I’ll take care of the wrinkles one by one, little by little without pushing myself too hard because I’m merely human after all. I expect everything to fall into place before the end of the year.

So what needs to be done? Well, I believe the internal link structure is perfectly operational by now, but I’m checking things one by one because some glitches occurred during the transfer process and I don’t like those one bit. All blog entries and pages are being re-checked, every single connection verified and amplified. Because this new theme is much more visual in nature, expect a lot more pictures to go along with the posts and not just on new content but retroactively applied as well in order to keep things consistent. More indexing, more interconnection between the content available and, hopefully, more interaction between all of us too. Feel free to point out any glitches/errors etc you may come across while checking out the new structure because that will be greatly appreciated.

I’ve been through a lot this year. I’ve also learned a lot, and I wish to continue doing so. I love writing, I love being creative, I love feeling good about it and Spell… B-O-U-N-D gives me an additional motivation to do so. It’s not always easy to maintain the stamina, to find the strength to be inspired and willing to let that inspiration flow but I take pride in my work even if I don’t always make it obvious. Nothing can compare to the thrill of creation. I can live without a lot of things. Creativity is not one of them.

If you’ve been following this project since its inception, I hope you can continue doing so and enjoying what comes out of it. If you’re only discovering it now, may you find something in here to inspire you in any way, for that would surely make me pleased. Most of all, have fun because that’s what really matters in the end.

Thank you for reading. S.B. over and out (for now).