Of This and Other Worlds

After all the nonsense going on over on LJ, I am thinking more and more than I might need to migrate to Dreamwidth. Except that if I'm going to keep a blog, I should probably do it on a less fandom-centric location like Blogger or WordPress... but I don't like the way either of those handle comments.

Sigh.

I've got two invite codes to give away. Just drop me a comment on this post and the first two will get 'em.

I've staked out rj_anderson over there, but have no intention of using it unless there's some sort of LJ apocalypse, so no need to add me to your DW reading list (though if you really want to, I won't say no).

I am home from the UK now but absolutely delirious off my rocker, despite having gone to bed at 9:30 p.m. (EST) last night and slept until 6:30 (EST) this morning. My body still seems to think that I was up until 2:30 a.m. last night and slept in until 11:30, and it DOES NOT WANT.

So I am taking today off, mostly. I have to get some Emergency Groceries to tide us over until next week, and I have Youngest Son to look after (and speaking of whom, the welcome I got from him last night after 10 days away was spectacular, I have to tell you, he lit up like a three-year-old roman candle and squealed "Mommmyyyyy!!!" as he flung himself around my ankles). But other than that, I am going to spend the rest of the day doing approximately nothing.

Also, my f-list exhausts me. I love you all, but I am currently at Skip=100 and have yet to get back as far as the end of August. So I will beg you all to indulge me, and say that if over the last ten days you have posted anything of Great Importance, Tremenjus Hilarity, Deep Philosophical Import, or to which a comment from me is Urgently Required, would you please put a link in the comments here? Thank you.

*collapses*

About the O NOES LJ HAS CANCELLED FREE BASIC ACCOUNTS AND STARTED REMOVING SEXY INTERESTS kerfuffle, and the boycott supposed to be taking place tomorrow:

What she said.

Not only is this not the hill on which I wish to die, it is not even one that I feel even offers an interesting view of the surrounding landscape. Excuse me while I lounge around the bottom and pick daisies, won't you?

Does anybody on my f-list know of a utility that imports old Blogger posts into LiveJournal? I mean, it seems like the kind of thing lots of people would want to do, surely somebody must have written one by now...?

Well, I couldn't get the LJ fairy to respond to my request to remove the defunct rjanderson feed, so I did the next best thing. Now I'm signed up as some variation of "R.J. Anderson" almost everywhere I have an online presence, and folks here will no longer have to struggle to remember how to spell "synaesthete7".

But I've been curious about something. If you're a published or soon-to-be published author with a background in online fandom, would you mind telling me what you decided to do with that background once your deal went through, and why?

If you chose to separate your fannish and professional identities, for instance, what factors influenced that decision? Was it your agent's recommendation to hide your secret Bat-identity, or did your publisher require it, or was it just something you felt would be prudent? If the decision was mostly yours, did you make it because you were embarrassed by the thought of people digging up your old fanfics, or because you worried about possible legal repercussions, or because you feared that your fellow pro authors would despise you if they knew? Or was there some other reason?

If on the other hand you've chosen not to hide your former (or present) fannish involvement, what gave you the confidence to make that decision? Have you had any unpleasant experiences that make you wish you'd chosen differently? Or have you found reasons to be glad you made that decision, and if so, what were they?

For my part, I've decided to write under the same pen name I've used for years, and keep my fanfic links page as part of my author site. I've been open about my fanfic writing past with both my agent and my new editor, and neither of them seems to think it's a problem, so I'm going ahead and hoping for the best. But sometimes I wonder if I'm going to regret that choice.

I'd love to get as much input on this as possible, so if you know of someone who fits the bill, please give them the heads-up. Anonymous commenting is welcome for authors who prefer to be discreet.

For those of my readers who share my interest in children's books and publishing news, I've just created a syndicated feed for the new version of Betsy Bird's well-loved Fuse #8 blog on LiveJournal. You can subscribe here:

fuseno8

yunitsa wins the contest in my previous post: the answer is, in fact, Snape.

Any guesses for the #2 most used word in my journal archive? Hint: it's another fictional character, and it isn't the Doctor. (Or Maud, in case you thought my icon was a hint.)

ETA: drmm guessed the correct answer: Harry.

I have now tagged every single one of my LJ entries. Phew! *wipes brow*

Predictably, the tags with the most entries include HP, Doctor Who, fanfic, Snape, and writing.

For one thing, it's 100% pr0n-free.

( My Interests Collage! )

There are a couple of images I'm still not entirely sure what they're meant to represent, but for the most part, it makes sense -- or did after I tinkered a bit.