There’s still no announcement on the home page, but I got an email from Red Room’s CEO Thursday with the news that Red Room is going away next Tuesday.

I’ve been a member of the Red Room site since my first blog post on January 18, 2008.  That was the day I announced my first book signing:  at Dark Delicacies with Maria Alexander and Christa Faust to sign Sins of the Sirens.

Red Room was envisioned as a site “Where The Writers Are”: a place where writers of every genre could blog and network, where they could have a home page that would feature their reviews, events, news, and that they could update themselves.

In a world ruled by Livejournal, Red Room was a revelation.  Of course, compared to WordPress, it was clunky, cluttered, and had features that never worked after the last update went live years ago. I’m sad to see it go, because I’ll miss the human component, but I’m relieved not to feel guilty for blogging less there as life got busier elsewhere on the web.

A lot has happened to me in the 7 years I blogged on Red Room:

• I posted 343 blog posts
• I won a life-altering trip to the IBPA’s Publishing University — for writing about hiring an editor.
• I won a number of books through Red Room giveaways, including Ariel Gore’s The End of Eve, which I’m reading now.
• I met some terrific, supportive writers, including Jane P. Wilson, Mary Wilkinson, and Jennifer Kathleen Gibbons, to mention a scant handful.
• I had innumerable interactions with Huntington Sharp, who made the Red Room experience professional and enjoyable.

While I blogged at the Red Room, Sins of the Sirens was published by Dark Arts Books, Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues was published by Scribner, Wish You Were Here was published by Western Legends, The Haunted Mansion Project: Year 2 was published by Damnation Books, and As Above, So Below was published by Black Bed Sheet Books.

It’s been a wild ride.  I’ve grown a lot as a writer and as an editor.  I’ve gained a lot of confidence because of the support and encouragement of the Red Room staff and writers.

I’ve gone ahead and opened a Wattpad account: http://www.wattpad.com/user/LorenRhoads.  I put a sample short story up there Friday morning.

I don’t think I will migrate my Red Room blog over, though.  It holds vestiges of my past and I’m all about moving forward.  This blog — Morbid Is as Morbid Does — will continue to be my primary blogging home.

However, if you want more, you can follow me on Twitter @morbidloren or friend me on Facebook at loren.rhoads.5.  I’ll still blog weekly at cemeterytravel.com, and monthly at the Western Legends blog and Scoutie Girl.