This Wednesday night is the launch of the first Australian anthology of blog writing and I’m featured in it! The launch is at Readings in Carlton from 6pm. I’ll be reading my bit, along with a lot of others.
I got a copy of the book in the mail a few weeks ago. It was exciting and eerie to open a book and find my writing in it, especially my blog writing. Who’d have thought?
What’s even stranger is discovering it’s been reviewed in The Australian by their literary editor, Geordie Williamson. It’s pretty cursory, yet a review in a major newspaper nonetheless. Other bloggers featured in the anthology have also discussed it, including the novelist, James Bradley, in his blog City of Tongues here.
And people who aren’t even in the book have actually bought it. Including Mr Darcy Moore, who’s written something very flattering about my piece here.
Yet in all these discussions, there’s been no mention of the most curious fact. Of the 36 bloggers featured in the anthology, I’m the only one to use the name of my blog, not the name of my person, to indicate authorship. I can see why well-known writers like James Bradley would use their personal name, but I’m surprised it’s so universal. It seems perverse to me to spend time and effort building up a readership of what is essentially a “brand,” only to abandon it at the first sniff of ink. Or am I mad?
The blog post published in the anthology is this one from October, 2009: The curious half-life of an ethically inadequate object.
*****
you’re completely bonkers, N., but all of the BEST people are. (stolen from alice)
silly, i am reading your piece now. you must put a more direct link to it.
if you weren’t such a brilliant writer, i wouldn’t bother to read “you” or rather “the SGx Blog”. go sheila!
lots of xxx’s
ha ha, thanks :) xxx
well done (half-life piece).
not sure how Camus managed to weave his way into the responses, just pitched (donated) a perfectly good book today camus notebook entries i’ve lost the ability to make any sense of it.
Thanks, Dafna. Yeh, how did Camus get in there? Funny reading it now. You don’t like Camus?
love Camus… and all the brooding french and russian writers. could no longer make sense of his “notes”. google it and you may see what i mean.
stories must be brief and make sense nowadays with the aphasia.
having an “up” day today. where is everybody? blogs are quite.
SGx, thinking out loud… many people read your blog. the low number of responses may be because your posts are so “complete”, like reading a short story or article, most people don’t suddenly have an urge to reply to a good book.
we are out here smiling and nodding in appreciation.
Oh, I see what you mean. I duly googled and got … things that should never have been published. Hey, guess what I started last night? Proust at last. I sent you a smile as I read. Lovely. And funny. Smiled out loud at … “When a man is asleep, he has in a circle round him the chain of the hours, the sequence of the years, the order of the heavenly bodies. Instinctively he consults them when he awakes, and in an instant reads off his own position on the earth’s surface …”
I’ve realised the same thing about my blog posts. They’re complete so no urge to comment. This is fine. My main purpose in blogging is to be “present” in my day/week and to practice writing. Blogging for response/collaboration is a whole other game. Getting your encouraging comments is a beautiful bonus. Thank you :) xx
stay with solid gold creativity it is obviously a publishable name !!
I am so disappointed I won’t be there you inspirational blogger
You have been such an inspiration to me and I have currently swung off the perch !!
Deconstructing my bed room to fit mum dad and 2 kids in for Wed !
Thanks. Best wishes for tomorrow Neri xx
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I used the name TimT when I first started commenting on blogs because I wanted to distinguish myself from other Tims, but wanted to have a name that was recognisable and easily identifiable with my actual name. So the ‘change’ of name in my print publication was no biggy. Indeed if I identified by my blog name – ‘WillTypeForFood’ I might start feeling more remote and detached from my readers than I ever have before. I like the human connection in names like ‘Tim’ or whatever. (Though come to think of it, I think at least one person may have thought my name was actually ‘Will’ because of my blog name. Hmmm…)
Lovely to meet you last night… though from now to eternity, you know, I’ll probably think of you as ‘That Person Whose Name Starts With N and Who Is Also Known as Solid Gold Creativity’.
Thanks, TimT, aka Will. I had a laugh at your blog name. Loved your reading. Great presence and wonderful voice you have. Cheers, N, SGC, TPWNSWN xx
Both A. and I really liked your piece and the rendition thereof, by the way.
Thanks Tim, and for link to A.
I think I hang out in different blogging circles than a lot of the anthologised, and I hadn’t encountered your blog before, though I had read your piece in Miscellaneous Voices.
I was Somewhat Surprised to discover you were a lay-dee and not a gent. Don’t know why. And I thoroughly enjoyed your reading.
from
Eglantine’s Cake
Thanks so much, Penni. Am looking forward to exploring your site. Funny about the lay-dee thing; might be something to do with the piece … Shakespeare, testosterone, etc :) When I first wrote it, I sent a link to Stephen Greenblatt at Harvard asking if he’d like to comment. He replied, though declined (said he’d just be adding to the re-telling). He assumed I was a gent too.
Once upon a time (well, maybe a few years ago) it was – I think – more an even split between real names and ‘blog de plumes’ (hehe).
Perhaps this was more in my ‘parent blogging’ circles where there were questions about children’s privacy etc. (and fair enough).
Great to meet you, N!
You too, Karen! You did a brilliant job on the book. Am really proud to be in it. N xxx
Hello solidgoldcreativity,
Just found your blog through City of Tongues and thought I’d comment. My own blog community is roughly half and half of blog names and real names. It’s been a couple of years now and I’m starting to wonder whether to cross over to my real name or not. I like the idea of the ‘brand’ you wrote of, I like my online other, also that writing under another name frees one up a bit (and reduces my so far unsubstantiated phobia of being sued).
But as an ‘emerging writer’, just beginning to smell some success in the other world, it is tricky to know whether to out myself or not. If I did, I think Miss Toa and I would be lonely for each other!
Sarah