Yesterday I was the guest something (speaker, reader, killer of time?) in my friend Anna Kazumi Stahl’s NYU (Buenos Aires campus) writing class. A student asked me about blogging, if I got anything professionally from it, what it’s value might be to a writer, things like that. She was a pretty girl wearing a short dress and big cowboy boots.
Blogging is partly nothing more than a distraction. Something akin to watching TV when there isn’t anything else to do.
What is its value, really?
Through blogging I have encountered interesting people I have never met, and whose existence otherwise would have been non- in my world. Here are some of them in random order.
Brad Green
Brad Green. One of my original readers. Brad is one of the best of the young (meaning he’s a lot younger than I am) writers of literary fiction I have encountered. Remember this name, because you will be buying his books one of these days (and trying to remember what odd place you first heard about him).
And check out his blog. It is often wild.
Tracey's blog photo
Box Office Girl. Her name is Tracey. Next to Brad, probably been around reading this blog since the beginning. She lives in England and we occasionally have a lively correspondence by email. Understandably, given the often crude reality of Cyberspace and that she has children, she does not post a photo of herself, or much personal information. Tracey concentrates on playwriting, and has a life connected with the theatre.
Nicole meditating
Nicole, from Meditations in an Emergency, now in hiatus while Nicole thinks about things. You can read about her hiatus on her blog. Nicole is more of an artist, to whom writing is just another of the forms of expression that intrigue her. Were I a young man again, and without commitments, I would chase Nicole relentlessly.
Although I would have to go to Hong Kong to do it. There are worse places to chase a pretty young woman.
Rose in Mexico
Rose Hunter. The title of Rose’s blog is suited to Rose: Whoever brought me here has to take me home. Rose has a life, and it is described and considered through her poetry; she is a published poet. She is also the editor of a poetry journal, the link to it is on her blog.
Next year I intend to meet Rose.
My favorite picture of her.
Cari Luna. Cari writes Dispatches from Utopia. She is also a novelist (and mother, and knitter, and cooker, and gardener, and lately activist). She could not have made up a better name than her real one.
Cari has a fine agent and a just finished manuscript, so you can expect to read one of her novels soon.
There are others, but these are the ones I think of as regulars. There are also bloggers I have met, a few I know rather well, but this is about the ones I have not met and only know as a result of the blog.
There is one other who belongs with this group, and although we have met, it was just once, briefly and in passing, a couple of years ago in Boulder, Colorado.
Court Merrigan
Court Merrigan. Court has a novel going around, but appears to be concentrating for a while on short fiction, some of which has been recently published. He also has a fun habit of writing about his rejections.
Court lives way up there in the high plains, and place permeates his writing. He also teaches.
So, pretty girl with the short dress and big brown cowboy boots, other than the TV-like distraction of it, this is pretty much what blogging is worth.
What a sweet post!
everyone here originally through your blog (?) (except for Cari who I don’t know/web-know but am clicking her link next), and it’s really been awesome. And I look forward to meeting you in Mexico next year!
I think I web-met
Think we can get the others to gather at the same time in Mexico City? What a fiesta!
You’ll enjoy Cari’s blog. She also has a good novel starting to float around out there.
Ha, Thanks, Don, for the shout-out. I’m sure there’re reasons why you have the impression you have of me, being more of an artist. But no, that’s never even once crossed my mind. Writing has always been my primary vocation, my being. It’s just that at this point in time, I haven’t done as much as some of these guys (I’m also some years younger), and not as good. Other arts like photography and dance are the stuff that intrigues and occupies my time at times.
Here I am, old as the hills, and only just last night I found out what “shout out” means. Someone said it on a TV show and I asked my wife what it means to thank someone for a shout-out. Now here you are.
The reasons I have for thinking of you as an artistically-inclined person (is that different from being an artist?) is because you work in the arts, or have, because you write artistically, and because of the way your thinking appears in your blog.
Photography and dance are art.
Will you come to Mexico City and hang out with Rose and me?
that would be very grand, but you might have to let both Rose and I sleep in the lounge room or something coz we’re both constantly poor.
And how is Rose getting to Mexico City in the first place I wonder? I can’t even take the bus to Wal-Mart at the moment not that there would be any reason for me to go there, but you get my drift. Anyway, I guess there’s time for miracles to occur, and in Mexico of course, we are always optimistic re that.
Ha! Nicole I was wondering if you were going to comment on that, or the chasing aspect. I thought one or the other….
Of course you (both) would stay with us. As for the other minor details, we’ll work those out later. We aren’t there yet, and won’t be until toward the end of summer.
Hell, even Brad might come. Texas is close, isn’t it?
Closer than Hong Kong. Brad!!! Sleepover in Don’s lounge room!
Haha! Maybe so. I just recently left my comfort zone and traveled to Vegas with my son. It seems I was able to survive outside my county boundary.
First Vegas, then the world.
Maybe Brad and I could take one of those overnight buses from Texas down to Mexico.
A plan is afoot.
Those buses are awesome. I could meet you both like two-thirds (?) of the way there, in Guadalajara, although also maybe not since I like my solo bus rides…I love Mexican buses! is my point. If you come from the US you will notice the big difference between the US company and when you switch to a Mexican one.
I need a fund-raising campaign. Plane ticket to that part of the world from here is over USD2000 I think, hmm.
Well I had no idea all this chit-chat was going on in my absence. Thank you Don, last but not least I hope in saying thanks for the mention. I would love to ‘meet in Mexico’ too, (that’s got a ring to it hasn’t it:-D Let me know when and how to get a plane, then a train, bus, car, horse etc.
From where you are I think a plane, then a bus or a horse or a car I suppose (no passenger trains much in Mexico)…. Yes, come over Tracey! And you are welcome in Puerto Vallarta anytime as well! (Well, everyone is.) (Sleeping in my apartment is more problematic though, since I have no couch, and now there is no door on the bathroom again and wildlife, etc.)
Yay!
Don’t worry all. We have room for everybody, we also have more than one bathroom and all have doors. There is a wildlife issue: our deaf white cat.
I’ll get to serious work on it after we are actually in Mexico City.
At the moment we are in Rio, and eating our asses off … or on.