We certainly had a good time at SXSW Interactive this year. We had an opportunity to chat and network with many of our colleagues, as well a chance to promote our book, The IT Girl’s Guide to Blogging with Moxie. Our reading went very well and the signing was such a great chance to meet new people and put some faces to the many names we encounter online.

We also had a chance to meet the team at Ellis Lab, the folks behind our favorite content management system, Expression Engine.  They are such a wonderful group of people and while we loved EE before, seeing what they have in store for their new release of Expression Engine and how passionate they are about their product and their users makes us want to become EEvangelists!

Our interview with BlogTalk Radio went smashingly!  We really enjoyed chatting with John Haven and look forward to working with BlogTalk Radio again soon.  You can listen to our interview by clicking that little player or following this link.

We’re starting to review the very beautiful flutter of questionnaires we received in late January and throughout February.  Kathy and I will respond in the order in which they were received and will do our best to get back to you as quickly as we can.  Kathy’s been feeling under the weather lately, so please be gentle.    We appreciate your patience!

Hope everyone has a wonderful week and a Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

It’s that time of year when the bell-ringers are out, the smell of pine trees fills the air and people will cut you for the last Thomas the Train, but it’s also a time for giving. And we think you should give Blogging with Moxie for the holidays this year.  We’re very subtle like that. 

We also have some great announcements!  We’ve received wonderful reviews on Amazon and the book has been doing steadily well!  The fine folks at Expression Engine offered up an adorable video review for their readers and several bloggers have shared their thoughts both on Amazon and on their personal blogs.  Our publicist CJ has also beenbusily pimping us (we love her!) and on December 19th in the evening, Kathy and I will be appearing on the Derek & Romaine Show on Sirius Channel 109.  Tune in and listen!  We’ll also try to get a transcript or a recording of the interview to post here, as well.

HOLIDAY HOURS: For the holidays and because we are working diligently to roll out many new internal projects we’ve been working on before the New Year, we will be CLOSED from December 19th - January 2nd. We really need these two weeks for administrative and year-end wrap-up, and like you, we wish to spend time with our loved ones for the holidays. We appreciate your consideration and will respond to inquires sent during that time on our return in the order in which they were received.

We are booking for the first quarter of 2008 right now and we’re wading through a stack of inquiries that came in over the last week or so. January is almost booked solid for me, though Kathy may still have some openings. We will also be out of the office March 6-10 for SXSW Interactive in Austin, TX. — just a heads up. Our schedules fill up fast and we are doing our best to respond to all of the requests in our inbox as quickly as possible.    We didn’t forget you!

If you are interested in having us design your blog or small business website, please fill out a Design Questionnaire. If you submit a request for a quote without completing a questionnaire, you will just receive an email from us asking you to please fill it out, so if you’re serious about working with us, please take a few moments to fill that out… yes, even the bit about the budget and timeline. Thanks!

I hope everyone has a wonderful, safe and joyous holiday season.

SXSW Coordinator, Hugh Forrest, emailed an announcement that “How to Make $$ with Your Blog Design Skills” made the “SXSW Honor Roll” of best panels.  Wahoo!
This means, to paraphrase, that after processing all of the panel feedback forms from this year’s event, the panel we were involved with made the so-called “Honor Roll.”  Our panel tallied an average score of 4.0 or above (on a 1 to 5 scale) on the feedback forms submitted by attendees at the end of our session. 
How encouraging! I know that we are interested in participating again, so this has given us experience to grow from. We look forward to both being able to attend SXSWi 2007.  Thanks to all who attended and voted for our panel!

Susannah Gardner of Hop Studios and Buzz Marketing for Blogs invited Moxie to participate in a panel on blog design best practices and the like at SXSW Interactive next Spring!
Kathy is going to have her hands full with her new baby girl, so I’m the designated Moxie representative. I’m honored that we were invited and I’m looking forward to meeting the other designers on the panel.  At Susie’s request, I recommended some of my favorites to attend, but there are so many good designers out there and only a handful of seats on the panel. Kathy and I are both eager to see who will show up and what we can all offer each other.
SXSW, here we come!