Lightening Rod

cheap hotel in DragorTwo years ago I started a blog called Saltire that covered a range of topics from business to advertising to marketing to technology to education and just about everything in between. For the past eight months Saltire has covered the entire 2003 FIA Formula One World Championship.

In those two years Saltire got a lot of attention from other bloggers and a few well known publications. The blog managed to keep and grow its readership even when it was all F1 all the time. Along the way I got to know some great people, disagreed with a few, and managed to coexist with the rest of the blogosphere.

But now it's time to move on to new, more permanent, location to blog about the things on my mind. The interview I did with Frank Paynter made me actually realize that I'd been writing long before Saltire's first post. I suppose Frank was right when he said, "Steve MacLaughlin is a writer and Saltire is one of his vehicles." I guess that means that I am trading in my last vehicle in for a new one.

So what will be different about Strathlachlan? For starters, I think you are going to see a much more personal and candid approach to my writing than you've seen in the past. After nearly a year of blogging only on a single topic I am ready to throw the flood gates wide open. Some of my early posts here were to get the mind working again and to get the wit fired back up.

Another change you will notice is a lot more Q&A with readers. Over the past two years I've received a ton of email from readers with questions about some of my blogging. I would also reply privately with my responses, but now I plan on posting my answers to these questions online. Consider this perhaps the first blog-as-advice column.

The only question is whether I can get lightening to strike twice. The blogosphere is a much more diverse, crowded, and pulsating mass of dialogue than it was two years ago. My hope is that I can bring along old readers and add plenty of new ones to the mix. Things should get interesting. Stay tuned...