I often wish my blog had a theme. I’ve thought of several, and that’s the problem. As much as I wish I were the clever type who could build a fascinating read around a specific subject, I’m not. I’m too easily distracted, and I feel a little claustrophobic when I think about putting myself in a blog box. I think that’s one of the reasons I enjoyed the arts beat so much when I was doing the newspaper thing: Never the same thing twice, and plenty to cover, from the performance artist who lived in a glass cage for a week, to the latest exhibit at the DMA.
I loved writing for the paper, but I hated being edited. Worse than that, I hated how the people I interviewed got attention and I didn’t. I’m a grown up now, and love a good editor, and would much rather point people’s attention toward someone else. I am well aware that not everything I burp out is good, and I already have more attention from solicited sources than I can respond to in a timely manner.
I also used to ghost write an advice column in a Christian women’s magazine. I think that was probably the funniest and most difficult job I had. The woman, under whose name I wrote, would call me with the questions she’d received, then use very rough language to answer (the almost always sexual in nature) queries. I had to find ways to write her graphic slang into advice that would translate well to a magazine you might find left on a church pew. I did a lot of blushing, a lot of giggling, and rediscovered my love of Roget’s Thesaurus. Poor Roget.
In other, actual news, I recorded a reading from The Order of the Blood for our publisher, last night. I’m not sure when, but at some point, when you click to download the sample PDF, you’ll hear me reading along with it. Even though it is set in London, I did not use a British accent. I thought that might turn it into a different kind of book entirely. Sort of how Kevin Costner turned Robinhood into something else entirely with his…accent.
Now I need to get dressed for the day. Once I get over my offense that Kids in America is being used to sell Tostino’s pizza rolls.
The Outside Lane 