Full Disclosure

Books & Books' owner Mitchell Kaplan and Marketing and Events Coordinator Cristina Nosti recently invited me to dinner with Chris Bohjalian. When I read The Double Bind, I knew I would read everything Bohjalian had ever written or will ever write, so I was excited.

This post isn't about how charming, intelligent, and self-deprecating Bohjalian was, or how he generously and graciously treated me like a colleague when Cristina and Mitchell mentioned my writing, it's about what made me start this blog (particularly so late to the phenomenon). Bohjalian asked if I had a blog he could check out.

So Chris B, this one's for you.

Seriously, when I schmooze BEA and run into people who could actually see me in print, their second question is about my blog (first question - "What do you write?"). I have mixed feelings about an online presence. When it comes to garnering fans, do these website diaries help careers? Wouldn't mystery serve me better? There's a host of online celebrities, but internet surfers generosity with their time doesn't equate to generosity with their money.* If no one looks at your blog, doesn't it prove to publishers no one cares what you have to say?

This blog is really just a way of fooling myself. I can say I'm putting myself out there without knowing where there is, tell myself I'm furthering my quest to be published, wasting time I could be crafting the perfect query letter with finding the perfect blog picture.

That my time may be better spent doesn't matter. If you don't exist virtually, you don't exist.

* The urge to rhyme "time" with "dime" here was almost insurmountable.