Year Three

I'm not one for navel-gazing but feel a quick post about what I'm up to is overdue, and given that this week is the second anniversary of starting this blog, now seems a good time. Yeah, two years! Bloody hell. Thank you for reading and a special thanks to everyone who has given up their time and sanity to write for New Elementary. And I can't really let an opportunity like this pass without thanking Kim Thomsen of the CEE Team for his faith and support.

I'm sure many of you have noticed my increased absence from the blog this year and in case you're not aware, it's because of a new project in my life: Bricks Culture magazine. I've finally taken the plunge and 'given up the day job' in favour of easing on down the LEGO brick road.

It all came about quite unexpectedly. The creator of Blocks magazine, Mark Guest, told me about his new projects and I was fascinated by the second magazine he was proposing, a coffee-table quarterly which aimed to take a more serious and artistic look at LEGO fandom today. In many respects his concept was similar to my original intentions with New Elementary, especially the desire to create high-quality in-depth content that was unashamed in the importance it placed on the LEGO hobby.

Thankfully Mark agreed that we were both on the same page and in a surprise twist, appointed me editor of Bricks Culture. With just a few weeks until issue 1 had to be at the printers, life became truly manic! It wasn't merely the oh-so-small matter of putting a whole 140-page magazine together - we were still figuring out the brand itself. I'm a recovering perfectionist and still my own worst critic, but against all expectation I'm incredibly pleased by what was produced and, thank goodness, it really seems the readers are too. Amusingly, people don't even wait to read it until they contact me to say how much they like it... simply flicking through it seems to be enough!

I'm now finalising issue 2 but also taking on a larger role with the parent magazine, Bricks, which takes the world of LEGO as its focus - as opposed to Bricks Culture which looks more at LEGO's place in the world. Bricks is a monthly publication and therefore this will all keep me super-busy.

Of course, it's meant a change for New Elementary, but I'm desperate not to let it die! Simply because  even after 110 posts, I still love it so much and am so happy that people - including the new readers - still love it too. Thanks to my wonderful, passionate contributors we can still bring you content every other week (or so...!) and I'm excited to let you know that there are some new contributors writing at the moment.  I will also continue to write as time permits or indeed whenever sets or parts come along that I simply can't bear to pass on to anyone else! I'm aware the blog has become very focused on set reviews and I would like some more variety to return, so I can also reveal that we also have some new ideas and approaches coming soon.

I hope you enjoy Year Three and if you enjoy what you read, please do comment - it makes a world of difference to the authors!

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If you're interested, here you can see some sample spreads from Bricks and Bricks Culture. The magazines are only available to order online and there is no digital edition available at the moment. Also, UK readers can tune into Channel 4 at 8pm this Sunday 14 June 2015 for a documentary about the LEGO Group and its fans; one of those fans being Mark Guest who they followed during the crazy process of starting the magazines. I'm told I make an appearance - thankfully, fleeting!