Look! A new look!

Welcome to my new look!

Well, not me personally. I am still wearing my hair long, parted down the middle, as I have since phones were attached to walls. I am still the fashion plate I have always been: jeans and t-shirts (fancy wear) or (since COVID) work-out clothes (that, more times than not, I don’t change out of all day).

And I still blog, posting every Wednesday, as I have for the past…yikes…ten years. (Estimates for the average lifespan of a blog range from 100 days to 2.6 years, with the higher-end populated by commercial ventures.) This blog, laurenchronicles, has had other names–counterclockwise when the site focused on the science of aging and separating hope from hype; thinhouse when the site focused on our deeply researched, well-intentioned but ultimately unaffordable plans to live a carbon-neutral life; myteenagewerewolf when I was riding the rollercoaster of mothering a teen girl. Creating the umbrella of laurenchronicles several years ago gave me the freedom to write about everything from the elegant (and sweaty) world of ballet to the hidden world of maximum security prisons, from the joys and deep pleasures of community activism to the anger and fear of living in Trump’s America. The blog, whatever it has been called and whatever I decided to write about that week, was never (and will never be) monitized. Maintaining and writing it is not about “platform-building.” It was, it is, a weekly discipline, a commitment to sort through and order my thoughts, to practice telling stories, little ones, to reach out and engage with readers.

I thought it was about time for a new look for the blog, something with a bit more energy and color, something that represented and celebrated what I love. And I knew just the person to design it: a super-talented, delightfully creative, engagingly collaborative illustrator/ graphic designer, Liza Burns, my daughter from another mother.

So here it is.

And to mark the launch of the new banner–a contest! Want a free, autographed book? Of course you do!

Here’s what to do: Take a look at the banner. Identify any 5 items and in a new words explain the significance of each to me. Then either PM or email me this response. Don’t post here! The first 3 people to identify and correctly explain 5 items will get an autographed book of their choice. (Choices are Grip of Time, Raising the Barre or Counterclockwise.) Contest ends noon on Friday.

Do it! Also visit Liza’s portfolio site for a visual treat.