the blogging life

I haven't been posting much the last couple weeks. Got caught up with a convention, and new ideas, and then spent a week racing around the countryside looking for... you'll find out what tomorrow.

But while I've been posting less, my friend Alison Bechdel has been posting more. Houghton-Mifflin just published her graphic memoir Fun Home, which has gotten all these rave reviews. It's really great, though I admit to being biased.

Anyway, Alison's been blogging her book tour — in text, audio and video — as obsessively as she documented her childhood. Her blog has knocked down that wall that traditional media puts up between the artist/author and her fans. It's voyeuristic and strangely compelling, as good memoirs are. But it's in real time. There's little opportunity for reflection, for putting events in context.

It's interesting to see how a good memoirist uses a blog. It's not the most profound reading material out there, but it's entertaining. And it opens a little window into the back end of the publishing industry. I like it.

Of course, when I was her assistant, I had to beg her to post... but that's another story.