More Thoughts About Blogging

Since launching into this new endeavor, I've been thinking about how blogging differs from other writing forms. Although I write fiction, I've also written poetry, considered essays or opinion pieces, and I journal regularly. (And, of course, I love e-mail.) I also do those writing exercises given in writer magazine articles and in books on writing.

But, quite apart from the advised promotion of your work, (which is what inspired me to blog), I think blogging offers a bit of everything above, without fitting any of the above.

Unlike journaling, which is an ongoing conversation with yourself, blogging is open to outside comment. Therefore, you might get a new slant on something you've been thinking about but haven't had a chance to talk over with anyone.

Unlike essays or poetry, there is no formal form you have to follow, but you can still think of nuance, and imagery, and search for a crisp way to phrase your thoughts.

Unlike an op ed, you don't have to drive a point home; you can actually muse "aloud" and leave it at that.

Unlike an e-mail, or passing conversation, you can expand on an idea without a sense of "monopolizing" the interaction. After all, no one has to read a blog, and no one has to respond, unless they are interested and want to. (If they do, they can take the space and time they want and you can read at your leisure. )

Still, like any writing that might be read, you do have to watch spelling, grammar, punctuation, and not be content with the scratch-outs, asides, and asterisks that mark the privacy of journaling. (A good discipline always, and a small price, I think, for an endeavor that opens up so many new possibilites).

So..., I'm a bit charmed by the discovery of "blog".

This New World of Blogging

Nancy, a writer friend, e-mailed me to say that she had written a wise and witty comment to my post about opera, and then couldn't post it.

Ah, that's the way of these tech matters. I am still trying to delete my one-line blog about still needing help with the signature thing, since I successfully solved the problem by going to "edit". (It seems obvious, doesn't it; particularly since the concepts "revise" and "edit" are so basic to a writer's life. But there you are: sometimes my computer and I have different ideas about how to apply a concept.)

Another friend, Bryan, suggested that I join Twitter and learn to tweet. Good grief,I'm just learning to blog. Besides, I think I'm too garrulous to tweet.

Nancy, I'd really like to read that wise and witty comment. If you still can't post it, then e-mail it.

Second Saturdays

Last evening, after dinner, I walked Cezar, our loveable mutt, forgetting that it was the date for the Second Saturday Art Walk. It was a lovely evening for it: in one week the weather has gone from overcast winter chill to hot summer, with the air still redolent from spring blossoms.

The Art Walk has evolved through the years into quite a "happening": When I first visited Second Saturday galleries in the early 90's, only a few participated in a far-flung sprinkle of locations that sometimes called for driving from one location to another. Now all of Midtown comes alive with street bands playing on every corner (sometimes two or three bands in a single block). Bookstores participate, and have their wares out on the sidewalk. Street kiosks sell jewelry and handicrafts. Hair salons and even Cuilla Brothers Body Shop's garage have turned into galleries, not to mention the many artist receptions in regular art galleries. It's a fabulous event.

Puccini and the Bohemian Life

I accidentally posted this as a comment to a comment. Ha! So much to learn about this blog thing. But here it is again, where it belongs:

Last night Rajan and I went to the opera -- La Boheme -- and I must say, the Sacramento Opera Company gets better and better. Luscious voices, evenly distributed across the cast, and wonderful acting that brought the story to life. I've always liked Puccini, and La Boheme is one of my favorites. I've always liked the arias and the sad love story, but this time I saw the story from a different level. Like the title, it's about the bohemian life. Four starving students, a poet, a painter, a musician, a philosopher, all making do on hopes and dreams, and passing affairs, barely able to eke out money for food. And then, the poet falls deeply in love and Life happens; Mimi has a fatal illnes; there's nothing the poet can do; nothing his friends can do. They are all broke, after all, and living conditions only aggravate the illness. The reality (and poignancy) of the bohemian life. It was like seeing the story behind the story.

I need help with a mistake.

See? I knew there would be surprises. Somehow Mrs. Seraphina got changed to Mrs. Serphina in my signature, and I can't edit and change it. Anyone out there who can give me some help with this? thanks. Elizabeth Varadan aka Mrs. Seraphina (not Mrs. Serphina).

A new adventure and a new site.

The world of blogging is certainly an adventure. An author at the SCBW&I conference in Davis last Saturday (May 2, 2009) inspired this endeavor, urging us to put ourselves out there in the blogging world. Ah, Linda Joy Singleton made it sound so easy.

The first site name I picked was for the purpose of highlighting the name of my juvenile fantasy, The Fourth Wish, (available at http://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Wish-Elizabeth-Varadan/dp/1440413061/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241821030&sr=1-1# and at: https://www.createspace.com/3353849 ). But there's another blog site with a similar name about another "fourth wish", which could make things very confusing. Thus, the switch. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Now that I have been through a few ins and outs of the blog thing, it's not quite as intimidating as I thought it was going to be. Of course... as soon as you decide something's going to be easy, surprises pop up, and I know I'm in for some.

I've already changed my blogsite name

I changed my blog site because the original name was too close to the name of another site. I will follow up with more at another time.

Elizabeth/aka, "Mrs. Seraphina"