Who the Heck Am I?

I am an accidental blogger; I never meant for it to happen, but like so many things in my life I just stumbled in that direction.

Back in 2003, I was just another wannabe writer submitting articles and short stories by the dozens to various magazines and journals. I had become of fan of the literary journal McSweeney's after reading Dave Eggers, "A Heartbreaking Work of a Staggering Genius" and had become a regular visitor to their website, McSweeney's Internet Tendencies (http://www.mcsweeneys.net/).

I began submitting several little web articles to John Warner, the editor there at the time; he always sent back encouraging rejections, but I never had any luck actually publishing anything with them. One day, John rejected a piece, but added at the end a question--because a lot of my submissions were about working in libraries, why didn't I submit a proposal for a series of dispatches about working in libraries. I, of course did, and it became "Dispatches from a Public Librarian."

The dispatches weren't blogs in the traditional sense; I submit them to an editor and they are not posted instantly (it can take over a month before it hits the homepage). The opportunity, however, not only opened several doors, but also gave me my first dose of what blogging was all about.

Sense then I have started two blogs: "Christian Humorist" which I started when I was contributing regularly to "The Wittenburg Door Magazine" to host some of the rejected humor stories I had submitted; and "Speak Quietly," which was started last year to promote my first book "Quiet, Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarian." It has grown into more then a place for shameless promotion, and in less than a year has got nearly 50,000 visits. The theme of the Speak Quietly blog is quite random, although most blogs are about technology and library trends with a pinch of humor whenever possible.