A New Beginning or the Beginning of the End?

You know, life has a funny way of interfering with your best-laid plans. For example, as I was preparing to launch Assignment: Sensations (Available now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple iTunes, Kobo and Inktera), I had planned to use this blog as a marketing tool. Some of you may know what actually happened--my wife of fourteen years, Holly, was admitted to the hospital with what turned out to be a fatal illness and passed away just a few weeks after the launch of my first book.

I'm slowly recovering from the loss--there's a huge hole in my life and my soul right now--but I'm picking up the pieces and determining to continue on in her memory. I've had the support of family and friends in this, including many of you who have been patient with me as I I return to what is my new "normal."

I was thinking just today of what I would say in this post as I was waiting on a doctor's appointment. I was going to explain all that has been going on in my life the last few months and what my plans are for continuing my writing career. Before I turned to that task, however, I checked my G-mail. I found a notice from Google Blogger that was sent today. It read:

Dear Blogger User,

We're writing to tell you about an upcoming change to the Blogger Content Policy that may affect your account.

In the coming weeks, we'll no longer allow blogs that contain sexually explicit or graphic nude images or video. We'll still allow nudity presented in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts, or where there are other substantial benefits to the public from not taking action on the content.

The new policy will go into effect on the 23rd of March 2015. After this policy goes into effect, Google will restrict access to any blog identified as being in violation of our revised policy. No content will be deleted, but only blog authors and those with whom they have expressly shared the blog will be able to see the content we've made private.

Our records indicate that your account may be affected by this policy change. Please refrain from creating new content that would violate this policy. Also, we ask that you make any necessary changes to your existing blog to comply as soon as possible, so that you won't experience any interruptions in service. You may also choose to create an archive of your content via Google Takeout (https://www.google.com/settings/takeout/custom/blogger).

For more information, please read here:                                 (https://support.google.com/blogger?p=policy_update).

Sincerely,
The Blogger Team

Now, I have another decision to make. Do I stay with Blogger and eliminate all adult content? That would mean I would be limited in the types of teases I could post. It would even limit the scope of general discussions I could have on my blog.

I know there's WordPress, but they didn't seem as adult content-friendly as Blogger was when I established Gardener's Plots.  I also appreciated that Blogger had a built-in adult content warning system, but that's  a moot point now.

I will make my decision on the future of this blog sometime in the next two weeks. I will let you know what that decision is as soon as I've finalized it--but I will continue this blog and start using it again.

It's funny, though, that Google announces this policy change shortly after the record-setting premier of Fifty Shades of Grey. Don't they know that kink is going mainstream?

Until then, stay tuned!
KB Gardener