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The Locked Bathroom

It's a funny thing about a blog that no one knows about yet. It's like a locked bathroom, a magic sanctuary, a junior high school journal. You can just sit in it, rummaging around in the old bellybutton for wayward lint, maybe sing off-key a little bit or stare off into space, and nobody's the wiser, the more grossed out, or irritated. Even after I hit the "Publish" button, I think I'm going to pretend I didn't.

The Second Post...or...Who Wants to Rip Off a Bandaid?

9/7/2013

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Let's face it. This is the second post. This is where I dash all of your high hopes (yes, the high hopes of all five of you) about what this blog could have been. It doesn't matter if after this I strike out in the direction of toaster anecdotes, or deeply processed meditations on the impossibility of two Mobius strips ever building a successful relationship, the spell will have been broken. (I know this from my vast experience writing one first post of one new blog.)

One of anything is Gene Kelley in top hat and tails. One kiss. One overheard song. One glimpse. One pulled pork burrito with black beans, cheddar cheese, salsa, sour cream, lettuce and guacamole oh and could I have a side of chips with that. 

One of something pulses with possibility as we imagine the infinitude of next moments that might proceed from it, and what meaning might lurk within it.

Two of something is the beginning of the end. Or, if we'd rather not get overly Jim Morrison dramatic about it, two is the beginning of the end of the beginning. Between two points you can draw a line! Draw a couple of lines and before you know it you have a shape or even a pattern! Then, I'm very sorry, no refunds, but the thing is what it is. "We're here. We're not there. Get Used to It" as the old gay rights protest chant did not exactly go. This blog is now officially what it is.

So did you feel that sea change? I felt that sea change. Oh, wow, that feels great. Really. Like I'm on top of that mint mountain from that childhood commercial. So glad to have that over with. NOW I can write that next post about ANYTHING. Reminds me of a story I heard once about the number three. Maybe twice. It's a magic number you know. Three. Yeah, I like magic. Endless silk handkerchief mobius strips. Bunnies. Dust.

Apologies Plato, to you and to the Universe's Second Blog Post Ideal......



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What sea is this?

8/15/2013

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Blogging: Taking up a piece of chalk and scribbling periodically on the internet blackboard. 

If you want people to come read your blog in droves, I sense two apparent solid approaches: 

1.Write exclusively about a subject. Fly fishing forever! Toenail art! Kumquat recipes! The more specific the better. Kumquat Recipes for People with Bedazzled Toenails Who Enjoy Fly-fishing.

2. Write about all of the above, plus 1,000 other topics, regularly, frequently, and in a voice so particular and compelling that we come just to hear the sound of the pen scratching, or slightly more literally, the fingertips tapping.

Well, THOSE aren't going to work for me. For one thing, I'm a hopeless unrepentant dilettante. (I suppose that's better than just being a plain old dilettante eaten up by the hopelessness of the condition, but still...not a good candidate for the task of maintaining a highly specialized blog!) I find the history of pencils as alluring as the sociology of institutions, or the habits of goats. My knowledge base for all these things is strictly superficial which would seem to make me a candidate for the second obvious approach, but then I'd have to face the challenge of "frequency" and "regularity", not to mention the whole intimidating project of effecting "a voice so particular and compelling that...blah, blah, blah".

It won't be a blog about the craft of writing. One, I'm still so very grasshopper in that world, and two, so many other bloggers already do that so well. (If you ever need a practical strategy for moving forward on a fiction project, or navigating a particular character, plot, or thematic challenge, check out Janice Hardy's website, The Other Side of the Story. http://blog.janicehardy.com/ ) If she only knew how many times she kept me going during my revision process!

It also won't be a documentation of my journey towards publication. It would be like asking readers to start in on a book at Chapter 15 out of 20. Plus, and again, so many have already done it so well. I'm extremely grateful to those who have laid out the ups, downs, sashays, and back and forth steps of their personal journeys from drafting, to agent seeking to publisher finding, to launching, to writing sequels, etc. "Through a glass darkly and then face to face". They have generously provided a light in the dark, comfort, and nourishment for those of us stumbling along behind them. Nathalie Whipple is a superb case in point. http://betweenfactandfiction.blogspot.com/

So what IS the point of this blog? The truth is, the only reason I began to think about rowing a blog boat out to sea is because I needed to build a website because I have a book, my first book, coming out in April, and the Weebly.com website template throws in a blog option. No one forced me to click on the "Yes, I'd like a blog" button. Many a website glows proudly upon its armature of zeros and ones, blogless. But I did. I don't really yet know why. So, in the absence of that knowledge, I've named my blog the Locked Bathroom, and will, for the moment, content myself (and punish anyone who stumbles upon it) with its as yet inchoate point, and a "plan" to see what happens. 

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