Based on the infrequency of updates in recent years, this is a pressing question on the minds of some readers.

The answer is a strong no, but requires some context. When I first started working on this web site in the year 2000, I had several things that are all, sadly, in shorter supply now: funding, web site support, and hopes for turning this site into a non-fiction writing career, my own riffing on whatever fumes are still around from the tailpipe of Hunter S. Thompson and his highway cronies from better narrative journalism days of the 1970s.

Well, this site brought me many a great adventure (not to mention fantastic reader letters), but it did not find me a career. I suspect if I’d had the foresight to start blogging on these topics in 2002 I might have ridden that early blog wave, but no way of knowing for sure now. I rolled the dice that “if you build it, they will come” – and many did, but not the kind with thick wallets.

This web site is built on a very archaic pre-CMS system that requires HTML coding to post content – something which I can do myself but only in the most bumbling way. This slows down the rate of posting and is one more way that new contributions to this site are slowed. I actually did get halfway through a major “Web 2.0” style redesign of JonReed.net, but a catastrophic series of setbacks led me to believe I would need to revisit this when I had more money to throw at the problems. I’d love to give this site a run in Drupal, but unless a volunteer Drupal developer with a passion for free speech and long form music journalism comes around, that’s not going to happen anytime soon.

In the last couple years, a perfect storm of adversity has hit my life smackhard, and compelled all hands on deck – meaning more focus and less side projects. Too bad – I have lots of stuff cooked up for this site. The Life According to Nietzsche essay in progress is one piece that haunts, along with a couple unwritten reams on the death of rock and roll that may be too tragic to publish anyhow. A mega opus review of Metallica and G N R’s latest albums, which leads to a riff on creativity and reinvention, also sits in my inbox unfinished.

This site is a pretty open book, so it may surprise readers that I am feeling circumspect about the “adverse” circumstances I have found myself in. At some point, I will name the things that have humbled me, but right now, it seems more important to dig myself out from where I’m at than to share false bromides from the middle of the shoveling project. It is fair to say, however, that I have been humbled enough by what I have been through that my appetite to skewer others in print has gone down, at least temporarily. My belief in independent voices and creative redemption rages on, however, so this is in no way a surrender. A tactical adjustment, yes, a surrender, fucking hell no. It would be a disservice to loyal readers to quit, and an undeserved capitulation to the occasional mean-spirited detractor who wanted me to lose heart some time ago.

Creative outlets have temporarily shifted. My professional career seems to have taken on new life, pushing the limits of blogging and podcasting in the SAP industry on JonERP.com. I also did finish a book, with sample chapters available on FreeFromCorporateAmerica.com. Limited free time is spent pushing that book out into the world. Books are like plants – you can’t just enjoy them once out in the sun. They need ongoing attention.

Finally, I suppose I have reached some limits with the non-fiction format. There is plenty more to write, but fiction is beckoning as a new wrestling partner. And the difference with fiction is I have no desire to publish the half-baked “works in progress” that are stuck on my computer, but in the old days might well have been tossed to the circular file. I’m not going to be publishing such mediocre efforts here, but the hope is that the mediocre will improve as I hone my craft.

You might be wondering why I would focus on fiction when the fiction market is in even worse commercial shape than non-fiction. The reasons are twofold: first, I see some opportunities in fiction to give voice to some experiences and thwarted dreams that would not have the same alchemy as an essay or some other exercise in self-reflection.

I also feel that the state of non-fiction as a career choice with what you might call “genuine ballsack” is increasingly unlikely. We’ve entered the world of infotainment and even the web bloggers are judged by eyeballs, though making a living off such content remains a wired pipe dream for most – except those who are engaged in a “freemium” business model (like the one I am running at JonERP.com), or who write the dullest “how to” content imaginable. Old media economic models are crumbling, but viable alternatives remain limited for all but the social media superstars.

I’d still like to get paid for this work – after all, as I have said to friends, someone has to fund this subversive lifestyle. No, fiction is not a great market, but there are intersections between fiction and film, and the film economy is in better shape, comparatively speaking. Reinvention calls me there.

I have written elsewhere that there is a huge distinction between “don’t give up” and making tactical changes before returning to the fray with excess pride, only to bang your head against the same wall. JonReed.net was one of my boldest attempts to claim a better life in midstream. To a large degree, it succeeded. It changed how I saw myself and gave life to some of the best work I had, until that point, buried inside me, at greater cost to myself than anyone else I suppose. Where JonReed.net did not succeed, and the only place it did not succeed, was in the realm of financial success. While that was never the goal of the site, I will not lie: I hoped it would lead me to real journalism engagements, and that’s where the stars never aligned, having other agendas besides lighting my way. I put a lot of the lessons from that process into my book, so if such lessons intrigue you, check out the material on FreeFromCorporateAmerica.com.

Lacking a financial benefactor of my own, I’m now regrouping in my life so that I can fund such ventures in a more powerful and lasting way. I hope the lesson from those who browse this site and read this letter is: put your pen to paper and make your voice heard. We need your bold stylings, your courage, your willingness to expose yourself in a way that is not pornographic but filled with the dignity of being a real person in an era of spin and resume cleanliness. I should add: please do not drain your creative essence posting Facebook updates and uploading endless photo albums. Social sharing can be lovely, but you need silence. You need to log out and walk in your metaphorical unplugged woods before you can bring back something fresh, something that does justice to your hopes as well as your fears – then you can log in and share that with impunity.

So follow that winding road, but pay attention to the signs along the way. The signs should never alter your inner resolve, but they do provide important clues for longevity. We must either “monetize” our work or find a way to fund the work ourselves. In many ways, the latter is the path of true greatness, but it is also the path of most resistance.

To that end, I have turned down several small advertisers who wanted to pay for ads on this site. I always felt that this particular site should have absolutely no commercial influence, since the independence from corporate influence is the glue that binds the material on this site together. With whoring to corporate interests becoming a widely accepted past time, that JonReed.net stance will not change. In nine years, there has never been an advertisement on this site, and there never will be. Consider that my investment in you, the reader, for all you have brought to me by honoring my best work.

Thank you for your interest and support.