Writing on Teh Internetz. We all do it. You may not want to call it blogging, but whatever.
Today, I bring you profiles of some of the more ubiquitous blogging tools. You know. In case you wanna get in on some of that easy blogging money!
(Caveat: There is actually no easy blogging money.)
Speaking of, these are all free services. Unless you want to get fancy, you can run a blog on these platforms for no money at all.
1. Blogger
Blogger is the blogging platform that's owned by Google. You know it; you're looking at it right now. It's Fringe's platform of choice, and it's fairly easy peasy. If you've got a Google account (also known as a Gmail account, though it does more than Gmail, people), then you can log in to Blogger.com and get started right now. However, there's not a ton of room for fancy personalization.
2. Wordpress
A favorite among the slightly tech-savvy, Wordpress sports a clean, streamlined look that can be calibrated to your personal tastes with lots and lots of options. It started life as an open-source blogging service at Wordpress.org, but now it's got the balls of corporate backing. A favorite in my line of work because it's got some great content management systems.
3. Typepad
To my young eyes, it seems as if Typepad has been around since time began. It was one of the first blogging platforms, and it's grown a lot. Typepad is owned by the company Six Apart, which you may know as the creators of Movable Type, another of the early blogging tools. It's actually not too different from Wordpress, but in terms of branding, Typepad has always felt like...an old person's blogging platform. Something almost business-like, I mean.
4. LiveJournal
LiveJournal, or LJ, is a blogging platform used mostly by suicidal teenagers and fans of Twilight. LJ is NOT classy. It's NOT pretty. It's NOT simple to customize. And it's certainly not a blog URL you'd want printed on your Big Girl business cards. But LiveJournal is good at community building, and if you want to bitch about TV shows and hot vampires, this is the place to do it.
I can say all these horrible things about LiveJournal because I use it. In fact, I use all these different services for different blogging projects. Depending on what you want your blog to be about and how much effort you want to put in its maintenance, you can decide for yourself.
Showing posts with label blogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogs. Show all posts
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Midnight Bus Poetry
Over at Slog they're keeping the spirit of poetry alive by publishing bus-related poems written by their faithful readers in a new column called, Midnight Bus Poetry. Check out posts by Paul Constant for poems—which may not be highbrow but certainly are highly amusing!—about the bus riding experience. And if you're inspired, why not submit your own? Poems need to be 50 words or less and should be emailed to poetryonbuses@thestranger.com. Winners appear here and on the Slog Blog. Enjoy!
Monday, February 16, 2009
open space blogging
Recently I started a new blog, recruited some co-bloggers, and then proceeded to tell everyone they could make whatever changes they wanted, so long as they didn't take anything away. I secured the blog name, but a friend designed it. Another blogger added a couple of widgets, which I then had to de-install because Wordpress is a far less fine product than Blogger. Posts can be authored by the individual authors or under the admin username.
Welcome to open space blogging. Open Space, for those not in the know, is a new information management scheme that takes the hierarchy and chain of command out of the workspace or meeting. According to its users, Open Space "works best when the work to be done is complex, the people and ideas involved are diverse, the passion for resolution (and potential for conflict) are high, and the time to get it done was yesterday."
What makes it different from a shared blogging experience such as Fringe is the fact that total control is in the hands of any user. A dangerous idea, in the abstract, but a useful one if my east coast co-blogger can update comments, contact interested participants, and track blog views while I'm still sleeping. The experiment so far is going well. But I'll be sure to keep you posted if any kinks arise.
Welcome to open space blogging. Open Space, for those not in the know, is a new information management scheme that takes the hierarchy and chain of command out of the workspace or meeting. According to its users, Open Space "works best when the work to be done is complex, the people and ideas involved are diverse, the passion for resolution (and potential for conflict) are high, and the time to get it done was yesterday."
What makes it different from a shared blogging experience such as Fringe is the fact that total control is in the hands of any user. A dangerous idea, in the abstract, but a useful one if my east coast co-blogger can update comments, contact interested participants, and track blog views while I'm still sleeping. The experiment so far is going well. But I'll be sure to keep you posted if any kinks arise.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Women Do What?
Most of us are aware that women are awesome and capable of just about anything. However, sometimes people seem to forget that while we are able to give birth, run countries, and cure diseases, we also do crazy things every once in a while, like drink beer and tell jokes. Weird.
Former Weekly Dig staffer Lissa Harris has noticed the slightly disturbing trend of the "look at women[insert completely inane and irrelevant activity here]!" headline and decided to create a blog dedicated to calling attention to these stories. Women Do! is just getting off the ground, so if you know a good story that meets this criterion: "The true Women Do story is not about medical issues, or gender discrimination, or anything properly related to women qua women. Oh no. It is about the shocking spectacle of women doing stuff that people generally do. At its heart is typically an earth-shattering revelation that some women, for instance, like to drive motor-cars or eat ice-cream.", be sure to send your tip to womendoblank[at]gmail.com.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Writing on the Fly
Former Fringe Blogger and Redivider Fiction Editor Matt Salesses has pioneered a new project he calls "Live Essays: An Experiment in Up-to-the-Minute Nonfiction." The tagline: "I have decided to post this essay as I am writing it, and to write it as it is happening. We'll see what comes of this. Other essays coming soon?"
It's an interesting approach, for a couple of reasons: 1. Matt is primarily a fiction writer. 2. Matt is living in Korea, teaching English. 3. The immediacy of the writing tends to create a sense of intimacy that we wouldn't normally get from an essay, as we feel we're reading as the action is happening.
This breed of insta-writing is popping up elsewhere, as well--the cell phone novel has become one of the most popular literary forms in Japan, according to this week's New Yorker article by Dana Goodyear. Sites like the Japanese Maho I-Land cater to young writers who can tap their tome as if texting on their cell, and then upload it directly onto the site, where readers can follow the installments as quickly as they're written.
It is a phenomenon both thoroughly modern and a bit antiquated--popular novels were often serialized in newspapers in the days of Dickens, letting readers easily digest stories in smaller chunks.
The idea of "instant nonfiction" posted online does raise a couple of questions, though. Where is the line that separates an "essay" from a "diary" from a "blog"? If we consider that an essay is typically a structured piece, building on a central theme, with a defined question and exploration of that question within, does this method leave room for that kind of analysis? Or is this the "new, new, new journalism"--instant, easy to swallow bits of information, delivered to the reader daily and free of charge?
It's an interesting approach, for a couple of reasons: 1. Matt is primarily a fiction writer. 2. Matt is living in Korea, teaching English. 3. The immediacy of the writing tends to create a sense of intimacy that we wouldn't normally get from an essay, as we feel we're reading as the action is happening.
This breed of insta-writing is popping up elsewhere, as well--the cell phone novel has become one of the most popular literary forms in Japan, according to this week's New Yorker article by Dana Goodyear. Sites like the Japanese Maho I-Land cater to young writers who can tap their tome as if texting on their cell, and then upload it directly onto the site, where readers can follow the installments as quickly as they're written.
It is a phenomenon both thoroughly modern and a bit antiquated--popular novels were often serialized in newspapers in the days of Dickens, letting readers easily digest stories in smaller chunks.
The idea of "instant nonfiction" posted online does raise a couple of questions, though. Where is the line that separates an "essay" from a "diary" from a "blog"? If we consider that an essay is typically a structured piece, building on a central theme, with a defined question and exploration of that question within, does this method leave room for that kind of analysis? Or is this the "new, new, new journalism"--instant, easy to swallow bits of information, delivered to the reader daily and free of charge?
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
blogwatch: Alinea at Home
Any faithful blog reader must surely by now have encountered the cook-through-the-book type of blog. The general idea is that some enterprising non-professional cook, dissatisfied or bored with the rigors of corporate life, decides that cooking her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking, say, is a far finer thing to do. In Carol Blymire's case it was The French Laundry cookbook. Was, because after the better part of two years, Blymire finished every recipe in the French Laundry cookbook, complete with photo documentation, fancy dinners at The French Laundry and Keller's Per Se, and a wide internet fan base.
It's not too late to be won over by Blymire's humor over successes and epic failures both. You see, she's decided to do it all over again using the new cookbook from Alinea, Grant Achatz's Chicago restaurant. Alinea, while winning numerous honors including Gourmet magazine's nod as Best Restaurant in America, is primarily known for the adventurous detail involved in every plate. Think foams, agar and other hydrocolloids, aromas, airs and other aspects of molecular gastronomy most of us experience, if at all, secondhand. A blog post, with visuals sums up the intriguing experience.
How can you cook such cuisine at home? Lord knows, I would probably break down in tears. For those interested in following along, Achatz and co. worked with Ten Speed Press to make shockingly affordable $30 cookbook, and Blymire's Alina at Home blog is set to commence any day.
It's not too late to be won over by Blymire's humor over successes and epic failures both. You see, she's decided to do it all over again using the new cookbook from Alinea, Grant Achatz's Chicago restaurant. Alinea, while winning numerous honors including Gourmet magazine's nod as Best Restaurant in America, is primarily known for the adventurous detail involved in every plate. Think foams, agar and other hydrocolloids, aromas, airs and other aspects of molecular gastronomy most of us experience, if at all, secondhand. A blog post, with visuals sums up the intriguing experience.
How can you cook such cuisine at home? Lord knows, I would probably break down in tears. For those interested in following along, Achatz and co. worked with Ten Speed Press to make shockingly affordable $30 cookbook, and Blymire's Alina at Home blog is set to commence any day.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur Interviews EIC Lizzie Stark
The staff of Fringe already understands how wonderful our Editor-in-Chief Lizzie Stark is, but we always love to see her honored elsewhere, too. Check out The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur for a little snapshot into Lizzie's life as EIC.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Blog is the New Black
Every time I blink these days, it seems a friend or acquaintance has created a blog. Whether it be a blog about meat, a blog about a summer in Ghana, or a blog about fashion, everyone's got something to say. And this isn't a phenomenon striking a small literary group in Boston--no, this new craze is spreading across the globe.
Celebrities like Kanye West and Michael Ian Black update their blogs daily, while writers like Tao Lin and Felicia Sullivan have built a strong reader base thanks to blogging. This somewhat indulgent NY Times Magazine piece attempts to break down the public's fascination with the lives and musings of complete strangers.
Is it that we're a generation obsessed with...ourselves? Or is it just that we're so excited to have a platform where we can broadcast our opinions to the world (ostensibly), no rejections or censors or boundaries to hold us back?
We breached the blogging discussion at a party I attended several weeks ago. A few friends expressed the sentiment that they wanted to start blogs of their own, but were "afraid people would read it." One friend even went so far as to start a blog, and then delete it when she thought too many people were reading it. I found this fascinating. I can understand fearing the implications if you were to blog about your personal life à la Emily Gould, but I think that as long as you're savvy enough to know where to draw the line, a blog about yourself can actually be pretty interesting. I myself subscribe to several blogs written by people I have never met because I am intrigued by what they have to say. In fact, I would love to start my own blog, but the reason I don't is I'm afraid people WON'T want to read what I have to say. So for now, I'll stick to the illustrious Fringe blog.
Oh, and Vernacular, a new blog written by Emerson students and alumni (myself included) about the Boston literary scene and beyond. Be sure to check it out. And, as always, thanks for reading.
Celebrities like Kanye West and Michael Ian Black update their blogs daily, while writers like Tao Lin and Felicia Sullivan have built a strong reader base thanks to blogging. This somewhat indulgent NY Times Magazine piece attempts to break down the public's fascination with the lives and musings of complete strangers.
Is it that we're a generation obsessed with...ourselves? Or is it just that we're so excited to have a platform where we can broadcast our opinions to the world (ostensibly), no rejections or censors or boundaries to hold us back?
We breached the blogging discussion at a party I attended several weeks ago. A few friends expressed the sentiment that they wanted to start blogs of their own, but were "afraid people would read it." One friend even went so far as to start a blog, and then delete it when she thought too many people were reading it. I found this fascinating. I can understand fearing the implications if you were to blog about your personal life à la Emily Gould, but I think that as long as you're savvy enough to know where to draw the line, a blog about yourself can actually be pretty interesting. I myself subscribe to several blogs written by people I have never met because I am intrigued by what they have to say. In fact, I would love to start my own blog, but the reason I don't is I'm afraid people WON'T want to read what I have to say. So for now, I'll stick to the illustrious Fringe blog.
Oh, and Vernacular, a new blog written by Emerson students and alumni (myself included) about the Boston literary scene and beyond. Be sure to check it out. And, as always, thanks for reading.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Stuff White People Like to Like
I recently came across the blog Stuff White People Like. Since its launch in January of this year, it has received over 18 million hits and 4,000 comments. The blog reads like a satirical handbook on how to understand white people by examining what they like.
At first I had to laugh that the first season of Arrested Development (#38) is in my DVD player, I recently received an invitation to an 80s party (#29), and I just made plans to meet a friend this weekend at our favorite breakfast place (#36).
As I thought more about the list, I noticed that it really only describes a particular brand of white people (seen every day here in Cambridge). One commenter agreed that the list is more “a qualitative outline of the young, faux-activist, indie-lifestyle, suburban white person, than of the caucasian race itself,” and it is more of a description of “an emerging pop culture stereotype than a racial one.” One of the posts even clarifies that white people don't like “white people who vote Republican.” Obviously not all white people can identify with this list, but it's a pretty accurate list for those who do.
With a satirical tone and focus on describing a cultural stereotype rather than an ethnic group, can this blog be considered racist? Since Fringe’s latest issue is “Ethnos” themed, my awareness (#18) of racial issues was piqued. I couldn’t decide whether the blog was racist, funny, or ironic (#50).
What do Fringe readers think of this blog? Is it the “White Chris Rock”? It’s a nice wake-up call for me, to re-examine the things I like and make sure I like them because I like them, not because of how cool (or lame) they make me look to everyone else.
At first I had to laugh that the first season of Arrested Development (#38) is in my DVD player, I recently received an invitation to an 80s party (#29), and I just made plans to meet a friend this weekend at our favorite breakfast place (#36).
As I thought more about the list, I noticed that it really only describes a particular brand of white people (seen every day here in Cambridge). One commenter agreed that the list is more “a qualitative outline of the young, faux-activist, indie-lifestyle, suburban white person, than of the caucasian race itself,” and it is more of a description of “an emerging pop culture stereotype than a racial one.” One of the posts even clarifies that white people don't like “white people who vote Republican.” Obviously not all white people can identify with this list, but it's a pretty accurate list for those who do.
With a satirical tone and focus on describing a cultural stereotype rather than an ethnic group, can this blog be considered racist? Since Fringe’s latest issue is “Ethnos” themed, my awareness (#18) of racial issues was piqued. I couldn’t decide whether the blog was racist, funny, or ironic (#50).
What do Fringe readers think of this blog? Is it the “White Chris Rock”? It’s a nice wake-up call for me, to re-examine the things I like and make sure I like them because I like them, not because of how cool (or lame) they make me look to everyone else.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
tag, we're it!
I was tagged earlier this week with a meme that's been making circles through the SF food blog community. The game? List five sordid facts about yourself, then tag five others. My tagger thought this would be a perfect project for a writer-cook, and that fact threw me into a tizzy. I had to cough up something good. And there are a few sordid stories I'd really rather keep to myself. The pressure was on to come up with five details and then sell them on their grisly details.
I'll just share two of my "five sordid facts" here, but you can find the rest right here. I was hoping we could use this as a celebration of the more literary moments of blogging as well as an adventure. I challenge the subsequent posters to share (at least) one sordid fact with the Fringe community. Hell, you can even make it all up! We'll never know...right?
So, from my list:
1. the "who am I really?": For a long time when you googled me (which is to say when I googled myself) the first thing you saw was this: Toby Reid is a faggot Jew. It was the first sentence of a story I wrote and had published. It's actually a really good piece and I still love it, but I always wondered if people randomly coming across it would think I was a bigot. Also, in grad school I wrote a story on terrorism that involved me googling things like "how to make bombs" and "how to get away with arson" so the government probably thinks I'm nuts. And now you all can as well.
5. the "violence against literature": Recently I took The Last Course out of the library (back in Boston, because SF just has no love for Claudia Fleming) out of the library and photocopied the whole thing because I can't afford to buy a marked-up ebay copy and it's out of print. So I have the most ghetto version of that cookbook, but it's okay, I still love it. Also, years ago when I worked at a bookstore I was so fed up with things in my life that I would rip pages in the back of the travel guides. Customers would be able to bring them back for a new copy...plus people would just take them and read them on the floor so lots were pretty banged up anyway.
And now, I'm looking forward to yours...
I'll just share two of my "five sordid facts" here, but you can find the rest right here. I was hoping we could use this as a celebration of the more literary moments of blogging as well as an adventure. I challenge the subsequent posters to share (at least) one sordid fact with the Fringe community. Hell, you can even make it all up! We'll never know...right?
So, from my list:
1. the "who am I really?": For a long time when you googled me (which is to say when I googled myself) the first thing you saw was this: Toby Reid is a faggot Jew. It was the first sentence of a story I wrote and had published. It's actually a really good piece and I still love it, but I always wondered if people randomly coming across it would think I was a bigot. Also, in grad school I wrote a story on terrorism that involved me googling things like "how to make bombs" and "how to get away with arson" so the government probably thinks I'm nuts. And now you all can as well.
5. the "violence against literature": Recently I took The Last Course out of the library (back in Boston, because SF just has no love for Claudia Fleming) out of the library and photocopied the whole thing because I can't afford to buy a marked-up ebay copy and it's out of print. So I have the most ghetto version of that cookbook, but it's okay, I still love it. Also, years ago when I worked at a bookstore I was so fed up with things in my life that I would rip pages in the back of the travel guides. Customers would be able to bring them back for a new copy...plus people would just take them and read them on the floor so lots were pretty banged up anyway.
And now, I'm looking forward to yours...
Monday, November 19, 2007
The Amazon Kindle - Wave of the Future or Overpriced Tech-toy?
In this morning's "Around the Water Cooler" segment of Good Morning America, I learned about the new Amazon Kindle. It's concept isn't new -- it's a wireless reading device that can hold up to 200 books, can display current newspapers and can even connect you to over 250 blogs. It's a s thin as a pencil and only costs...$399.00!Forgive me for saying so, but I like to be able to take my books on the train with me, throw them in my bag, hand them off to my friends when I am finished, and read them on the beach. I remember the e-reader craze of the early 2000s. They never caught on. What makes Amazon think that these e-readers will be different?
I may be old-fashioned, but I still like the idea that people can stroll into the library, produce a card they got for free, and have access to books. I like the fact that when my friend is finished with "the book that changed her life" she can hand it to me and not worry that her life-savings is suddenly in my possession.
I admit that the idea of Fringe readers downloading the latest issue to their e-reader to take with them on the bus or train appeals to me, but part of our manifesto states that we want to be accessible. Isn't that what online magazines and blogs are all about? You don't need anything but a public computer with Internet access in order to partake in the discussion. You certainly don't need $400.
What do you think? Would you carry one of these around as your exclusive reading material?
Friday, November 9, 2007
Blogging through the Culinary Underbelly
This year, for the second time in my writing life, I thought about participating in Nanowrimo.
When I did Nano before, in 2003, I wrote an awful 50,000 word genre novel. I didn't pretend it was serious work, but I was proud of the accomplishment. There's something intimidating about a novel--all that time, and all those words, namely--and in a month I had created one.
This year, working upwards of 60 hours a week, Nano just doesn't seem feasible, at least if you are also trying to get some sleep.
While I spent the last week of October stressing about logistics--Could I do it? How would I carve the time out of my schedule to write? What shape would the novel I had in mind take, and how would I link its disparate pieces together?--I allowed an even larger, scarier question to form in my mind.
Was it still the best way to get my writing out there? Is the novel, in our current society, a valuable product? Is it the best use of my time, of my reach? Hardly new ideas, I know. While we've all been talking about print culture being dead and how no one ever buys novels anymore, we're still waiting for the rise of e-books and their ilk, and we may wait a while more.
About a month ago I was sending out a piece of flash fiction to online journals. I'd worked over the piece and was fairly happy with it, but couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't "worth" sending out to print journals. I submitted the piece to over a dozen journals and within four days it was accepted. I'm not saying this to brag, but because the experience was just so shocking. Another writer in my writers' group, Jamey Genna, shared that she's also been getting a lot of flash fiction placed recently. There seems to be an energy around the form that isn't present around longer stories. What we want to hear, what we have time and space to hear, is it changing? Where do you read, and what do you read? If what we are after as writers is to affect other people, or to get out stories out there, how do we make the novel relevant and critical, and not an artifact?
This time, these questions are coming out of my experience as a blogger. Some time back I started an anonymous food-writer blog (and subsequently became un-anonymous), and while it's audience is not large by any means I do have some readers, many of whom are also in the culinary industry. An old Emerson professor of mine Pamela Painter always stressed the importance of giving your characters a good, unusual job because the wealth of useable details was such a gift to your story. By becoming a pastry cook halfway through my course in Emerson's MFA program I essentially gifted myself. While there are many food blogs out there in the blogosphere, the voice of the chef is still rare.
As inimitable Bay Area pastry chef/writer Shuna Lydon wrote in a guest-post on writer Michael Ruhlman's blog, what it means to be a chef is still a story largely created not by us, the people in the kitchen. What really happens behind those doors is not Top Chef and it's not represented accurately. I have a unique story to tell now, and I have a voice that tells mostly true stories, and I have learned a little something along the way about appropriate content.
Chef culture finds its way into my fiction, and this Nano novel that I wanted to write would have taken chef culture as its focus. But it seemed more important to blog. To write flash fiction. The food blogging sphere is being mined for book deals. Maybe you've heard of Julie Powell's Julie and Julia, but do you know Gluten-Free Girl? Confessions of a Restaurant Whore? Conversely, authors such as Maryusa Bociurkiw, whose novel Comfort Food for Breakups is by turn both funny and wrenching, are turning to blogging as a promotional tool once the novel is published.
There are different kinds of stories we tell in blogging and in print. There is an immediacy at play in blog posts that does not translate well to the slow pace of fiction. But somehow, as I've let a part of my writing work be through blogging--and writing about the work I do, in which the voices of women and of queers are hardly well represented--is informing and changing the writer's work I do. Blogging is no longer a sidebar to my work. It is part of my writing identity. Perhaps, troublingly at times, the most important and far-reaching part.
When I did Nano before, in 2003, I wrote an awful 50,000 word genre novel. I didn't pretend it was serious work, but I was proud of the accomplishment. There's something intimidating about a novel--all that time, and all those words, namely--and in a month I had created one.
This year, working upwards of 60 hours a week, Nano just doesn't seem feasible, at least if you are also trying to get some sleep.
While I spent the last week of October stressing about logistics--Could I do it? How would I carve the time out of my schedule to write? What shape would the novel I had in mind take, and how would I link its disparate pieces together?--I allowed an even larger, scarier question to form in my mind.
Was it still the best way to get my writing out there? Is the novel, in our current society, a valuable product? Is it the best use of my time, of my reach? Hardly new ideas, I know. While we've all been talking about print culture being dead and how no one ever buys novels anymore, we're still waiting for the rise of e-books and their ilk, and we may wait a while more.
About a month ago I was sending out a piece of flash fiction to online journals. I'd worked over the piece and was fairly happy with it, but couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't "worth" sending out to print journals. I submitted the piece to over a dozen journals and within four days it was accepted. I'm not saying this to brag, but because the experience was just so shocking. Another writer in my writers' group, Jamey Genna, shared that she's also been getting a lot of flash fiction placed recently. There seems to be an energy around the form that isn't present around longer stories. What we want to hear, what we have time and space to hear, is it changing? Where do you read, and what do you read? If what we are after as writers is to affect other people, or to get out stories out there, how do we make the novel relevant and critical, and not an artifact?
This time, these questions are coming out of my experience as a blogger. Some time back I started an anonymous food-writer blog (and subsequently became un-anonymous), and while it's audience is not large by any means I do have some readers, many of whom are also in the culinary industry. An old Emerson professor of mine Pamela Painter always stressed the importance of giving your characters a good, unusual job because the wealth of useable details was such a gift to your story. By becoming a pastry cook halfway through my course in Emerson's MFA program I essentially gifted myself. While there are many food blogs out there in the blogosphere, the voice of the chef is still rare.
As inimitable Bay Area pastry chef/writer Shuna Lydon wrote in a guest-post on writer Michael Ruhlman's blog, what it means to be a chef is still a story largely created not by us, the people in the kitchen. What really happens behind those doors is not Top Chef and it's not represented accurately. I have a unique story to tell now, and I have a voice that tells mostly true stories, and I have learned a little something along the way about appropriate content.
Chef culture finds its way into my fiction, and this Nano novel that I wanted to write would have taken chef culture as its focus. But it seemed more important to blog. To write flash fiction. The food blogging sphere is being mined for book deals. Maybe you've heard of Julie Powell's Julie and Julia, but do you know Gluten-Free Girl? Confessions of a Restaurant Whore? Conversely, authors such as Maryusa Bociurkiw, whose novel Comfort Food for Breakups is by turn both funny and wrenching, are turning to blogging as a promotional tool once the novel is published.
There are different kinds of stories we tell in blogging and in print. There is an immediacy at play in blog posts that does not translate well to the slow pace of fiction. But somehow, as I've let a part of my writing work be through blogging--and writing about the work I do, in which the voices of women and of queers are hardly well represented--is informing and changing the writer's work I do. Blogging is no longer a sidebar to my work. It is part of my writing identity. Perhaps, troublingly at times, the most important and far-reaching part.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Teeth, feathers, girls, boys
A good poem from Jeannine Hall Gailey on Verse Daily this morning:
The Husband Tries to Write to the Disappearing Wife.
On her blog, Jeannine says: "This is one of the few persona poems where I tried to write in a male voice, so it was a little risky for me."
I reckon it's good—potentially good for the poem, most def. good for the mind—to mess around with gender in this way. Seems like, now that the distinctions between genders are blurrier than ever, it should be easier for us to do. But having tried writing from the boys' side of things, I find it still does feel risky, or at least difficult. Brava!
The Husband Tries to Write to the Disappearing Wife.
On her blog, Jeannine says: "This is one of the few persona poems where I tried to write in a male voice, so it was a little risky for me."
I reckon it's good—potentially good for the poem, most def. good for the mind—to mess around with gender in this way. Seems like, now that the distinctions between genders are blurrier than ever, it should be easier for us to do. But having tried writing from the boys' side of things, I find it still does feel risky, or at least difficult. Brava!
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Travelling Friends
Heather's post yesterday got me thinking about travel what it means to be open to new experiences. I spent the academic year of 2000-2001 abroad in England, and during that time I made several trips.
Perhaps the best trip I took was to Ireland, with a close friend who was also abroad on the same program. We spent a few days in Dublin, then headed to Kilkenny to spend a night. It was near Christmas, so there weren't too many other tourists about, but in our hostel we chanced across an Australian several years older than us, who had been traveling through Europe for several months and had rented a car.
Because he exuded kindness and gentleness, the two of us decided to hitch a ride with him, just to the next city. Five days, four towns, and one Irish breakfast later, we were friends.
The Aussie and I have continued corresponding over the following years -- he's been through Europe several times, worked for the Australian government, and now is doing charitable work in Cambodia (he keeps a wonderful blog about his experiences). Although we haven't seen each other in person, I feel like I know him, and am glad I followed my heart and got in that car.
Also in today's news, why we need more women on the Supreme Court...
Perhaps the best trip I took was to Ireland, with a close friend who was also abroad on the same program. We spent a few days in Dublin, then headed to Kilkenny to spend a night. It was near Christmas, so there weren't too many other tourists about, but in our hostel we chanced across an Australian several years older than us, who had been traveling through Europe for several months and had rented a car.
Because he exuded kindness and gentleness, the two of us decided to hitch a ride with him, just to the next city. Five days, four towns, and one Irish breakfast later, we were friends.
The Aussie and I have continued corresponding over the following years -- he's been through Europe several times, worked for the Australian government, and now is doing charitable work in Cambodia (he keeps a wonderful blog about his experiences). Although we haven't seen each other in person, I feel like I know him, and am glad I followed my heart and got in that car.
Also in today's news, why we need more women on the Supreme Court...
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