F5 V2 / T Mobile / Blogging

Friday, Sept. 24, 2004 - 8:43 a.m.

This week's Friday Five v2.0: (Questions are boldface, my answers appear beneath.)

What is your opinion on karma?

A: I think if you are patient enough, you'll see everybody get everything they deserve in life.

If anything, do you think attitude makes any difference? If you believe the world and life are good, will good things radiate toward you? If you believe otherwise, will it all be a self fulfilling prophecy?

A: Ever since I have allowed and invited the universe to take care of me, it has done so, with balance, dignity, and fairness. It hasn't always been easy, but it's always been fair in the end.

How has luck/chance/facts-of-life/God/karma/nature treated you so far?

A: So far, so good.

What is your opinion of the concept of destinies?

A: Destiny is defined as 'that which you are destined to do.' I believe there's a time to let things happen and a time to make things happen and that it's your ultimate responsibility to determine which is which.

Are both bad and good things needed in order to truly live life? Can you have the bad without the good? The good without the bad?

A: Dark does not exist without light. When less than ideal situations happen in my life, I appreciate the good things more.

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Okay. Now, if you wanna play Friday Five, go here.

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My cell phone battery was not holding a charge like it should, and neither was John's.

So John went to the T Mobile store downtown where he works, and T Mobile will be sending replacement telephones via DHL any minute now. Gotta love that one-year warranty!

We do have to return the telephones that we currently have, so they can look and see what is wrong with the ones we had originally been sold, but still, that's a very cool thing for T Mobile to do for us.

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And finally --

NEW YORK (AP) - Jennifer Weiner, author of the best-selling novels ``Good in Bed'' and ``In Her Shoes,'' likes to spend three to four hours a day working on fiction. When she's done, time and family permitting, she updates her online journal.

``When I went on my first book tour (in 2001), I began keeping a Web diary and everyday I would write about the latest indignity I suffered,'' she says. ``And I found I really enjoyed doing it. It's a way for me to keep in touch with my readers.''

Blogging has caught on with everyone from high school students to journalists, and Weiner, Neil Gaiman and Claire Cook are among a growing number of authors who no longer confine private thoughts to private papers. Instead, they post weekly or even daily dispatches on the Internet that range from tour diaries to family updates.

Author blogs are also the latest reminder of how times have changed since writers simply wrote their books and let the publishers - and the work itself - speak for them. Now, many authors arrange their own tours, maintain Web sites, send e-mail newsletters and, in the case of Weiner and others, offer ongoing personal commentary.

``There are 300 channels of cable, there's the Internet,'' Weiner says. ``I think it was a wonderful time when you could be like J.D. Salinger and publish something and hole yourself up in New Hampshire. But we have to realize we sell a product in the marketplace and the marketplace has a lot of competition.''

Author blogs often have a light, conversational tone, much like postcards or telephone calls. Weiner might confide she's doing laundry, or report that her baby daughter can now flip over from back to stomach. Gaiman, author of the ``Sandman'' comic book series, interweaves reader comments with his own responses.

On Cook's blog, the author includes photos and commentary from a writer's conference she attended last summer, highlights from a recent tour and reviews of her latest novel, ``Multiple Choice,'' about a mother and daughter going to college at the same time.

``I don't want to give too much information. I'm not into full disclosure. But it's a still a great way to let readers feel like they're part of your life,'' says Cook, who has also written ``Ready to Fall'' and ``Must Love Dogs.''

Writers who don't keep blogs often cite lack of interest or lack of time.

``No,'' says author A.M. Homes, when asked if she would start a blog. ``Without a doubt. No. I'm too busy writing to do a blog.''

Even those who have worked extensively with the Internet have resisted. Fiction writer Robert Olen Butler, who once composed a short story online in real time, says he can't bring himself to maintain an online journal.

``I don't write nonfiction,'' says Butler, whose story collection, ``A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain,'' won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993. ``I am so against writing nonfiction that it makes me physically ill. I admire people who do it, and I love to read it, but I don't even like to write long e-mails.''

Publishers, too, are divided. At Viking Penguin, which publishes Cook, executive editor Pamela Dorman says she encourages blogs ``as a very targeted and effective way to increase word of mouth.'' However, she adds that it's too soon to know if blogs help sales. At Farrar, Straus & Giroux, where one prominent author, Shirley Hazzard, doesn't even own an answering machine, president Jonathan Galassi says he doesn't pay much attention to blogs.

``Maybe we're behind the times,'' says Galassi, who publishes such award-winning authors as Hazzard, Susan Sontag and Jonathan Franzen. ``I just think there are too many words out there already. I hope our writers will be spending their time writing their books, not their blogs.''

``In general, blogs don't make a lot of sense for literary fiction authors,'' Dorman says. ``Their audience is more accustomed to seeking information through reviews and traditional media.''

M.J. Rose, a novelist whose books include ``The Halo Effect'' and ``Lip Service,'' says she has mixed feelings about online journals. A leading advocate of writers using the Internet, she wonders how many new readers blogs attract and thinks a blog should reflect personal passion, not professional calculation.

``A blog can't be a promotional tool first. It has to be rooted in a subject the author cares about, is interested in, and has something to say about,'' she wrote in her own blog, which started in August and focuses on the marketing of books.

``This blog is about marketing, not because I don't have passion for my own fiction - I do - you can't write novels without it - but I don't have a burning desire to describe my writing life. I live it - I don't want to write about it.''

On the Net:

Jennifer Weiner's blog:
http://jenniferweiner.blogspot.com/

Neil Gaiman's blog:
http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/journal.asp

Claire Cook's blog:
http://www.clairecook.com/id2.htm

M.J. Rose's blog:
http://mjroseblog.typepad.com/buzz-balls-hype/

I myself read at least two Diarylanders and possibly three that are known out in the mundane world for work that is drastically different than their personal blogs imply.

I am glad blogging has become something that people do.

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