Champagne and telescopes!

 TA DA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Spiffy, right? I am so in love with this new site, and so grateful to LeahCreates for designing it for me. I really wanted something clean and fresh and simple, and this is perfect. (I would like to cut and stitch my own handmade header at some point—I can see it so clearly in my head—but for now this is just right.)Now I suppose the most obvious question is, what is a comet party? (And as a part-two to that question: why "comet party" instead of my own name? As an author, don't I kinda need to put my name all over this site?)The phrase "comet party" had been appearing again and again in my notebooks over the past few years. I knew it was important—a message from my subconscious, or whatever you want to call it—but I also knew that it wasn't meant to be a book title. I loved the idea of a bunch of astronomy geeks in tuxes and ball gowns getting together to drink champagne and watch a comet hurtle across the night sky.Over the past year or so, the comet metaphor has grown into a way of life for me. I want to live a bright and celebratory and deeply meaningful life, and I want to help other people figure out how to do the same. That's why I became a vegan lifestyle coach in June, and why I want to offer content to inspire readers to explore their creativity on a much deeper level. Like, scary deep. Awesome deep.As for why "Comet Party" instead of CamilleDeAngelis.com? (The original URL will redirect, by the way. I just need to finish transferring some files before I take down the old site.) I could certainly go on writing novels, eventually find a cushy teaching gig at a suburban liberal arts college, and live a happy life—but I'll be a great deal happier if I keep following the same instinct that led me to build this new site. I don't want to live a comfortable, complacent life. I want to be more than a writer. I feel the impulse to share what I've learned, and it would be wrong not to honor that.Over the past five years I've had several conversations with my sister about becoming the sort of blogger who, you know, gets comments from people she doesn't know in real life; and Kate pointed out that bloggers who focus on one subject will naturally have an easier time attracting readers. I know she's right, but I'm interested in so many things—and could you imagine my starting a bunch of separate blogs for each subject?! A miscellany has always made the most sense to me, so I'm sticking to it.The ongoing spam issue and having to turn off comments only amplified the feeling that I was talking to an empty room. But the real issue, for me, is a matter of blogging as a form of community building, and that's something I really want to work on through Comet Party. This will be our shindig, mine and yours.Writing-wise, travel-wise, vegan-wise, any-wise, if there's something in particular you'd like me to blog about, please do leave me a comment. And in the future I'll do a better job of asking for your input. I'm also going to adopt a proper blogging schedule so that if you're only really interested in, say, posts on books and writing, you can just check in with me on Mondays and leave it at that. I'll still be happy to have you.Of course, I hope everyone will be interested in Where We Make, my new weekly feature on artists' workspaces. Read this post for all the whys and wherefores. Here's the blogging schedule, by the way:

Mondays: The literary stuff. Book appreciations, my writing process, and suchlike.

Tuesdays: Either travel stories or something on a more directly spiritual topic. (Yes, this is new for me. I'm going to get way more honest with you.)

Wednesdays: Vegan is love, baby! Recipes. The philosophy. General lifestyle goodies (like where to find shoes that aren't made of plastic.)

Thursdays: All things arty and crafty. Fine art, knitting, sewing, embroidery, etc.

Fridays: Where We Make! The first entry (mine!) goes up at the end of this week.

What else is new? What else do I have planned?

•  To celebrate the new site, I'll be offering some giveaways in the next couple of weeks—copies of the Petty Magic audiobook and a dessert out of Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's The Joy of Vegan Baking! Yes, I am actually going to bake and send you a box of cookies (or cake, or macaroons, or whatever; your choice!) Watch this space daily, because I am a really good baker if I do say so myself. I gotta spread the word that vegan baked goods can be thoroughly delicious, because everyone seems to have a story about a vegan brownie they bought in some random coffee shop that tasted like cocoa-flavored sidewalk chalk.

• In keeping with my new tagline, "experiments in incandescent living" (you can read more here about the concept of "an incandescent mind"), I'll be throwing myself into fun new ongoing projects and documenting them on the blog. The first is veganizing a series of recipes out of Cookery and Pastry, Susanna MacIver's 18th-century Scottish cookbook (you can read her recipe for "fairy butter" in one of my Hawthornden write-ups); and the second is vegan chocolatiering. I want to learn how make my own gourmet chocolates SO BAD, and once I have the basics down I want to make fancy stuff like the violet cremes you can find at Hope & Greenwood, that most magical of London candy shops. (There's more, but these two are plenty to start. And realistically, both will have to wait until 2014.)

• More Q&As with my favorite writers, artists, and vegan luminaries. My first Q&A is with McCormick Templeman, it's REALLY juicy (for you guys who love to read and talk about the joys and mysteries of the creative process), and it's going up next Monday! I'll also be interviewing crafty friends from Squam, new friends from Main Street Vegan Academy, and my unbelievably talented audiobook narrator, Kelley Hazen.

• Some Q&As will feature giveaways of brand-new books. (Rachel Cantor! More McCormick Templeman, because you can never get enough McCormick Templeman! And if you have other suggestions for cool folks to interview, I'm all ears. And fingers.)

• In keeping with my new role as a vegan lifestyle coach and educator, there's brand-new content on this site for the veg-curious: check out my resources page and the Vegan Q&A. I know most of you aren't vegan yet, and some of you have next to zero interest in the subject, but the information is there for you if you ever change your mind.

And finally, can I just tell you how PSYCHED I am to be using WordPress, which means you can comment whenever you feel like it? I really want to hear from you. Tell me if anything I've said here has prompted some sort of reaction in you—if you're also feeling this same desire to shrug off your own limiting beliefs about who you are, what you're capable of, and what you're really meant to be doing with your life.Tell me what you'd like me to write about.And tell me if you'd like to contribute to the new site in some way—whether on Where We Make or a Q&A.Thanks so much for all your friendship and support. I'm over-the-moon excited for this...as if you couldn't tell!