I started writing about food and drink in one place on the Internet. It is a blog called Food With Legs and since early 2009 it has been the easiest place to find my geeky, curious, rant-filled thoughts about the very best things to eat and drink.

The challenge inherent to starting with the blog and then moving to freelance writing is that like dandelions in a suburban subdivision your writing can spread quickly and sometimes beyond your control. I think there are still at least a few people who share my eclectic set of interests and want to read articles that I’ve written. Posting to social media and cross posts on Food With Legs were temporary stopgap solutions, but I’ve decided that it’s time to anchor my writing with one central hub

I’ve had the domain davidort.me registered for quite a while and have finally filled it with content. A couple rooms in this new home are still without furniture and the whole thing could use a coat of paint, but I’ve decided it’s time to share the address with everyone. It has a blog section where I will continue to write about ideas as they occur to me. Content-wise not much will be different than it was at Food With Legs – and I’m not entirely sure what I’ll do with the old site. In addition, I’ve created a portfolio section and plan to use it as a place to post links to stories I write for other publications, usually with a header image and lead paragraph. Finally, the new event section will act as a place for me to post workshops, demonstration classes, and speaking engagements I do related to marketing my cookbook.

To go with the new site I’m also starting a newsletter whose first issue will be published this week. I’m not set entirely set on its description yet. It will link to stories I publish, announce events, and offer some unique and useful content. Especially in the early days I’ll also probably have a contest or two open only to newsletter subscribers. The bottom line is that it will be another place for me to pose thoughtful questions and offer useful information.

If you subscribe to the Food With Legs RSS feed, you probably noticed the slow pace and then lack of new posts over the past six months or so. I’d love it if you switch over to my new feed and subscribe to the newsletter.

Design was never a huge priority for me at Food With Legs and frankly I often felt some sites spent too much time and effort on it. I guess that’s a fairly obvious set up for me to say that I’ve come around. There is something inherently motivating about a good-looking, functional site. If you’re contemplating whether or not to buy a good-quality WordPress theme or build your own, you can add me to the list who think that paying for it is probably worthwhile. (I’ll have more on this in a future post.)

As with most websites this will always be a work in progress. I hope you’ll join in the conversations shapes the route it takes. As always, feel free to comment here or reach out to me by email.