I have been on the road way too much for the past few weeks. I just got back in town from attending an engineering conference in Dallas, TX. Upon checking into the hotel, I realized that I was without internet, and I was actually relieved. It was nice to sit in a room and not be tempted by the allure of a high-speed internet connection. But I’m back home now, and as you can see, I’m once again a willing captive of the super-information highway.
After getting back online, I moseyed over to Devas T’s blog and was saddened to see that he was essentially “going underground”, making his currently blog less…spirited, and starting a new blog under a pseudonym.
From a business point of view, I total understand where he’s coming from. He writes and illustrates books for young children, and there are some things on his site that aren’t for the kids. He needs to have a site that both children and parents are comfortable viewing, and that probably means he needs to separate the personal from the professional.
I’ve never met Don (although he must be a rather striking fellow, being that I was mistaken for him twice at an event last week), but I do know that he’s had more than a few headaches concerning censorship and where to draw the line on his blog. And as much as I hate to admit it, he’s probably making the right choice in cleaning up his professional blog.
For all of you that don’t know, I write for the 14 and up crowd (I’m 28, but I still include myself in this category). We curse. We say what’s on our mind. We can be crude and funny one minute and be pissed off and infuriated the next. (And don’t tell anyone…but some of us even have sex.) Technically, Red Polka Dot In A World Full of Plaid is being published as an adult novel, due to it’s crossover appeal with older and younger readers (similar to Megan McCafferty’s novels).
Just like Don feels that his professional blog needs to be a reflection of what he writes, my blog needs to do the same thing. So for all of you that have graciously linked to my site over the past few weeks, I won’t be offended if you want to remove your links. Really. This is a business, and if you write for eight-year-olds, you may not want them wandering over to my site. Not that this blog is going to be filled with gratuitous sex and mindless violence (I’ll save that for Cinemax’s late night movies), but I can’t promise that it’ll be G rated. If anything, I can promise that it WON’T be G rated.
I know that if my agents and editors are reading this, they’re probably cringing, but I know I’m right…at least for the moment. I’m sure I’ll change my mind by tomorrow.
There much more to report on (including a listing in Publishers Weekly’s Fall 2005 Preview for Trade Paperback First Novels), but that will have to wait until this weekend.
I’m disabling the commenting ability on this post, but feel free to email me at vcj@varianjohnson.com. I’d love to hear what you think.