I think I should begin by saying that I've never blogged before, and I'm still not sure how it's going to work out, because of my difficulty with writing as myself.
To elaborate: I'm a YA novelist, three months into contract with the Best Agent in the Known Universe, with a book that will be coming out in the next eighteen-months-to-two-years. (It's a slow business, but hey-- lots of time to finish the trilogy!) I'm considered pretty young (but not a teenager anymore, thank god) in the industry, and whether that could be a selling point is still under debate. So, three weeks after sending off my most recent revised version of the novel that I began in high school but after a million or so drafts finally evolved into its final form early this year (like a Pokemon!) I thought I'd try my hand at this blogging thing, because I have a lot on my mind about lots of things, and, despite the work of sequel-plotting and the boredom of college crap, I actually have time now. Awesome.
However...
I'm going to remain as anonymous as possible, because I want to be able to give honest book reviews and opinions in general without jeopardizing my still-nascent career or alienating any prospective readers. There will be some who will view this as absolute groveling cowardice, but --and I'm being completely honest now! See how it works?-- I don't care, because I've worked damn hard and for a damned long time to get where I am now, and I'm not going to risk screwing it up. So, all revealed information about me and The Book is and will forever be:
Me: I write, read, and spend sixteen hours a week fencing, i.e. figuring out various ways to poke someone else with an electrified metal stick.
The Book: it's a YA creepy fantasy and not about vampires/werewolves/angels/blagh. Or high school. High school's boring.
But back to my initial point: the reason I have a problem writing nonfiction bloggy-type stuff in my own voice is that in fiction I write almost exclusively in the first person, partly because I'm completely useless at third and don't like it much anyway, but mostly because the first person feels much more natural to me, and it's a fun little challenge to figure out how to give an individual first-person voice to each individual character.
But I've never actually written as me.
(I've tried before, but that was only because the therapist in the psychiatric hospital I spent some time in last year "strongly encouraged" it, and I humored her and wrote some crap because I wanted to get the hell out of there as fast as possible.)
But writing with my voice has always felt bizarre to me, almost as if I'm not certain what or how that voice actually is. I hope that blogging (and also raging about things that usually involve ultra right-wing assholes and the toxic culture at large) will help me figure it out.
That, and I've always read feminist blogs with a wistful I wanna do that...
So, here it is: The Blog! Stay tuned for Feminist Musings! Veganism! Writing! Mental Health Issues! Book/Movie Reviews! Badass Fencing Miscellanea! 'N Stuff!
And, when The Book comes out, we'll see whether I can keep on going, or be forced to wink out of blogosphere existence.
I hope it's the former, because I want this to be a freakin' awesome blog, yo.
To elaborate: I'm a YA novelist, three months into contract with the Best Agent in the Known Universe, with a book that will be coming out in the next eighteen-months-to-two-years. (It's a slow business, but hey-- lots of time to finish the trilogy!) I'm considered pretty young (but not a teenager anymore, thank god) in the industry, and whether that could be a selling point is still under debate. So, three weeks after sending off my most recent revised version of the novel that I began in high school but after a million or so drafts finally evolved into its final form early this year (like a Pokemon!) I thought I'd try my hand at this blogging thing, because I have a lot on my mind about lots of things, and, despite the work of sequel-plotting and the boredom of college crap, I actually have time now. Awesome.
However...
I'm going to remain as anonymous as possible, because I want to be able to give honest book reviews and opinions in general without jeopardizing my still-nascent career or alienating any prospective readers. There will be some who will view this as absolute groveling cowardice, but --and I'm being completely honest now! See how it works?-- I don't care, because I've worked damn hard and for a damned long time to get where I am now, and I'm not going to risk screwing it up. So, all revealed information about me and The Book is and will forever be:
Me: I write, read, and spend sixteen hours a week fencing, i.e. figuring out various ways to poke someone else with an electrified metal stick.
The Book: it's a YA creepy fantasy and not about vampires/werewolves/angels/blagh. Or high school. High school's boring.
But back to my initial point: the reason I have a problem writing nonfiction bloggy-type stuff in my own voice is that in fiction I write almost exclusively in the first person, partly because I'm completely useless at third and don't like it much anyway, but mostly because the first person feels much more natural to me, and it's a fun little challenge to figure out how to give an individual first-person voice to each individual character.
But I've never actually written as me.
(I've tried before, but that was only because the therapist in the psychiatric hospital I spent some time in last year "strongly encouraged" it, and I humored her and wrote some crap because I wanted to get the hell out of there as fast as possible.)
But writing with my voice has always felt bizarre to me, almost as if I'm not certain what or how that voice actually is. I hope that blogging (and also raging about things that usually involve ultra right-wing assholes and the toxic culture at large) will help me figure it out.
That, and I've always read feminist blogs with a wistful I wanna do that...
So, here it is: The Blog! Stay tuned for Feminist Musings! Veganism! Writing! Mental Health Issues! Book/Movie Reviews! Badass Fencing Miscellanea! 'N Stuff!
And, when The Book comes out, we'll see whether I can keep on going, or be forced to wink out of blogosphere existence.
I hope it's the former, because I want this to be a freakin' awesome blog, yo.
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