I know that I don’t post here as often as many writers I know post to their sites. It is part of that commitment I spoke of a couple of posts ago. I attempt to post interesting and truthful things here. I genuinely attempt to avoid just turning this into some kind of “ads only” kind of space or allowing it to simply fade away. I don’t want to post something just for the sake of posting something.

I write. I’m not great at it, but I do it. I keep at it. I blog here because there are times when I have thoughts on things I want to express but those don’t fit with what I’m writing at the time. I want this to be a little part of me that I can share. I call it the pretend blog because I don’t have much of a readership at this point. I suspect that won’t change in the near future and I’m just “pretending” to be posting out things for my vast audience.

I was traveling for work last week. It was my very first trip to Las Vegas. I have three or four pages of notes about my trip. I want to post them here, but they definitely need to be cleaned up. Perhaps next time I travel I will actually get in a couple of good photos as well. As I thought about how to post these things, I recalled an author’s posts that were frequently about travel. There were times I felt bothered by those posts so I scanned or skipped them. I realize now the level of commitment that takes, to post about your travels while you’re travelling. I had my laptop and had it set up, but ended up working and not writing when I was seated in front of it. I will need to get better at this.

The author I’m talking about above is Mark Van Name. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him and hanging out with him in the past (one of the many reasons I love fandom and attending conventions). While I don’t know that he’d consider us “friends”, I always enjoy the brief times we get to chat or go for lunch. I also admire and respect (more and more as we go) the work he shares on his blog. His posts are honest and emotional – and it comes through in his words. He has totally committed to writing every day – even when he travels. You should go and check his blog out (and buy and read is books if you haven’t already) here: http://markvanname.blogspot.com/

I really suspect we are in some kind of special / golden age for science fiction and fantasy authors right now that others will speak of in awed tones years from now, the same way people sometimes speak now of getting the chance to meet and hang out with authors like Asimov and Clarke back in the day. There are other authors out there doing the same kind of blogging – and doing it for very large audiences. Scalzi, Wheaton, Hines spring to mind. I like Mark’s blog better. If I were a better writer I’d have the appropriate words to describe the subtle difference I feel between those blogs and what Mark writes. Whatever the differences may be, I intend to keep reading them all and hoping that some day the things I write here for “pretend” will give somebody else that same sense of connection and inspire them to do the same.