A post by James Bradley, at his City of Tongues blog, led me to buy and read Miscellaneous Voices: Australian Blog Writing, edited by Karen Andrews.
I would not usually buy an anthology of ‘online’ writing as it just seems too silly, losing all the hyperlinks and hyperconnectivity, but felt happy to invest in this project when I read:
“This anthology is an experiment to see how this writing, these writers, stand up to the challenge of the page; or, to put in another way, to put them up in front of another audience which may be more page-loyal.”
I guess we’ll never know what percentage of people who read the book are ‘page-loyal’ and not really online readers of blogs but I suspect some will be drawn into the world as a result.
I encourage you to buy a copy of the anthology but if you are not so inclined, I’ll link to some of my favourite posts from the collection. All, ‘stand up to the challenge of the page’.
The curious half-life of an ethically inadequate object is a piece of writing that any ‘reader’ would love to have written. The intelligence of the writer is what one finds really enjoyable and the subject matter, honesty, perception, Macbeth and Bill Clinton, is of interest to a very wide audience. I now have an RSS feed from the Solid Gold Creativity blog and would recommend it to all.
Some of the regulars who comment here already know Angela Meyer’s blog but please read and bookmark, Embracing the medium: what makes a successful cultural blog? as it is a significant addition to our understanding of bloggers and what they do.
Damon Young’s piece and blog made for interesting reading and I really relate to Tiggy Johnson’s structural needs.
My enjoyment of Penni Russon’s poem, Fragments from a fragmentary mind, which I had read previously at her blog, was definitely enhanced by having a sense of her and Martin from our twitter conversations.
Alan Baxter’s, ebooks are the future matches my perception of our reading world now too and it is interesting to hear that his sales on kindle are exceeding hard copies! Also, this post, not included in the book, really made me laugh
I mostly read teacher/education or political blogs and this collection has broadened the field for me significantly.
Martin Jorgensen
It really is a wonderful collection Karen has drawn together.
It’s funny how immediate my memory of the night Penni left her lights on still is. Nice to reread it (fragments from a fragmentary mind) and remember again.
solidgoldcreativity
Darcy, thanks so much for the link, and your great encouraging words. It’s the first piece I’ve had published in an actual book, and I’m as surprised as anyone that it would come via a blog. Looking forward to exploring your site. Cheers, SG
genevieve
Amen to the cleverness of the solid gold person, whoever he or she is. I wanted more pieces like that, though I do enjoy the book as a whole too – the quality of contributions is very high.
Thanks for taking the trouble to post some as hyperlinks, Darcy – what a good idea. I’m sure it’s an anthology idea that will lend itself easily to e-publication in future volumes.
Darcy Moore
Thanks Martin, SG and Genevieve for commenting.
I also wondered about the idea of publish an ebook of the collection we are discussing but decided, considering the stated goal of reaching ‘paper-loyal’ readers, that I wouldn’t pursue the issue of format/medium.
I now have an RSS feed from your blog too, Genevieve, which is an elegant and interesting site.
genevieve
ooh thank you, I have returned the favour. Not sure how interesting mine will continue to be in the near future, I’m tired already after a break this year, which is a bit pathetic.
Karen (miscmum)
I dabbled with the idea of doing an ebook, I admit, however for this first venture I really just first wanted to concentrate on the text on the page. I also originally thought of making photography more of a feature, too. These things may come in time. And thank you again Darcy for a lovely write up