Sandra Brown is best known for her novels written under her own name, over 50 of them have ended up on the New York Times bestsellers list.

What you might not know, is that Sandra Brown also writes under the pen names of Rachel Ryan, Laura Jordan and Erin St. Claire.

Some of the books by Sandra Brown are also available as audio books, that makes it easy to take them along (simply load on an MP3 player) and as the narrators reading these novels are truly skilled, it’s like cinema in the head!

Smash Cut is her latest title, a story with important protagonists:

• Paul Wheeler: CEO of the Wheeler Enterprises empire, is shot dead during an armed robbery.
• Julie Rutledge: A savvy, cultured, and attractive Southern woman, was hand-inhand with Paul Wheeler at the time of his death.
• Derek Mitchell: A defense lawyer of renown, he goes to the mat to make a case for every client — and headlines for himself.
• Creighton Wheeler: The prodigal nephew of Paul and a playboy with a passion for movies. Even those closest to Creighton can’t be sure when he exits reality and enters the fantasy world of films.

Paul Wheeler is shot dead during a robbery and from there, things start to get very interesting! – More Sandra Brown audio books.

As some readers may know, John Nelson Leith is not my legal name.  My legal name is so absurdly common that there are already dozens of people in the entertainment industry with the same first-last combination.  So, I added … something.

But, my situation is not really that unusual.  Plenty of writers consider using pseudonyms.  Some of them face the same issue I do.  Others simply believe that their names aren’t as catchy as they should be.

Bookends LLC has some excellent advice for people in our situation.  Enjoy!

pseudonym

The time has come. For three years I have blogged and doodled under (and behind) the pseudonym ybonesy. When we started, the alias was for protection; we didn’t know what kind of weirdos might read the blog. (Now we know, and I’m pretty sure I can best any of ‘em. Well, except for one, and she knows who she is.)

The nom de plume served me in other ways. It made me freer than I might have been early on in my writing. It’s strange sending your words out into the ether of the Internet. There were times when I thought, Well, no one gives a damn about turkeys who mate on the patio, or a snake who bathes, or my stress incontinence, but who cares? No one knows it’s me!

OK, I exaggerate. There were enough friends and family who knew it was me such that I was never truly anonymous. And I knew the kinky among you would appreciate turkey sex, wet snakes, and bed-wetting. (Going back to read that one, are you?)

But I’m ready to merge. I’m already a Gemini; having a pseudonym is like being four people. ybonesy has become me and I have become ybonesy. Time to take off the mask.

first, the facts

My name is Roma Arellano. I’m married to Jim. My daughters are not really Dee and Em, but since they’re not old enough to choose to go public, we’ll keep calling them Dee and Em. Sony the Pug, Baby the Bullsnake, Otis, and Rafael have used their real names from the beginning. They can all bite; thus, they never have worried about protection.

I work in high-tech. I love my job. I used to be a workaholic. It took almost burning out to finally figure out how to work and write in the same lifetime. My other big accomplishment is that I haven’t puked since I was 11; I’m now 48. I have emetophobia, so called because those who suffer are afraid of others emeto-ing all over us. Other than that, I’m like any other corporate writing painting wife mother blogger.

next, the hair

Why did God give us hair anyway? Didn’t he realize we’d figure out how to knit? I have the worst hair. One hairdresser used to call it Schnauzer fur. Then I’d pay him $85 to turn me into a retriever.

Long? Short? You get to decide which is better. Voting is anonymous, or you can vote using your pseudonym. I will not be crushed and depressed for two weeks if you hate my new hair. (After all, I still have my no-puke streak, and you can’t take that away from me.)




BEFORE: Looking like a raptor that just spotted a mouse in a field.






AFTER: Aw, I am so shy. Haven’t I proven myself to be shy?

lastly, the stuff

The biggest reason for taking off the mask is that I’m selling my goods and I want to claim them as my own. Part of embracing myself as a creative being is embracing my creations. So instead of ybonesy being my pseudonym, ybonesy is my muse.

And it’s the name of my new Etsy shop. If you haven’t heard about Etsy, it is “your place to buy and sell all things handmade.” You’ll need an Etsy account to buy there, but you will find great items from so many different vendors that it’s worth the trouble setting up an account.


http://www.etsy.com/shop/romaarellano


Wallinga Design, the same graphic design company that created the red Ravine logo, also created my new logo. Professional people and fun to work with. We were aiming for something quirky, bold, emetophobic. Wow, you’re still paying attention?





If you have any questions about my shop, you can ask them here. I have more items to add, and more to make. Keep checking in. I haven’t made a sale yet. I might just shave my head when I do make one.

epilogue

If you want to keep calling me ybonesy or yb, that works for me. Or you can call me Roma. Or you can call me Emeto-dork. Or just dork.

QuoinMonkey, who I fondly call QM, is not taking off her mask right away. But eventually, and she doesn’t look anything like a hawk going in for the kill.

OK. All done now. This feels good.




See? I told you I was a dork.

Pseudonym.ψευδώνυμον (pseudṓnymon). ‘False name’*. I had a discussion with Dion Kagan about my pseudonym at the Visible Ink launch last night. Afterwards, I jotted down a couple of notes on the pros and cons of writing pseudonymously.

Pros

• You get to keep your friends (and your job).
• Writing anonymously/pseudonymously can be liberating for those who work with a particular style, genre, or content. Megan Lindholm also writes as Robin Hobb. Mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson wrote Alice in Wonderland under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll.
• Pseudonyms are often useful for people with lengthy or difficult to pronounce names. 
• Or it can be used to create a new identity (‘branding’) such as in the case of Helen Darville/Demidenko.

Cons

• There’s double handling: two Facebook accounts, two Twitter accounts, two email accounts, two personal websites, two blogs, etc.
• New acquaintances/readers can get confused: ‘So, what’s your real name again?’
• There’s a lack of consolidation in one’s writing folio, especially if one uses multiple pseudonyms.

When I started writing pseudonymously, I was attracted to the idea of anonymity. I didn’t want to be hostage to my life, and the pseudonym helped me detach and meditate on what was happening around me. But the anonymity didn’t last long. It might have if I was a writer hermit, but as I started meeting others in the writer community, I had to take ownership of my words again. Despite this, and despite the fact that the name looks unpronounceable, I still like my pseudonym. It’s a way to reclaim my ethnic heritage, as well as giving me the opportunity to challenge the ethnic writer stereotype.

Am I hiding behind a persona? I was, I guess, but not any more. Am I selling out? Probably, ethnic lit’s the current cash cow (though I’m writing less ethnic lit nowadays, so maybe not.) Do I still have my friends and my bread-earning job? Check and check. It’s all good, Sunshine.  

Speaking of challenging ethnic stereotypes, I’ve finally got that T-shirt from topatoco.com. I wore it shopping yesterday, and a guy at JB HiFi came up to me while I was browsing and said, ‘Ni hao!’ To which I replied in my ocker accent, ‘Actually, the T-shirt states that Chinese is not my native language.’ He was crushed. 

A couple of hours later, I saw Simon McInerney with the same T-shirt. *SIGH* On him, it’s whimsically nonsensical. On me, it just gets misinterpreted.

*As per  Wikipedia.

1. A Christmas tree costume is WAYYYYYY more recognizable than being a hurricane or the European Union.

2. People who get married in their old college towns flood those towns with bridesmaids and groomsman with one goal in mind: college tail.

3. On Halloween, you never learn people’s names.  #2 refers to a guy I only know as Patrick Bateman.  And then there’s leprechaun guy and YouTube guy and Homer Simpson.  Yay Halloween.

4. People who can’t dance should not dress up as famous people who can.  For example, do NOT dress up as MC Hammer if you are a horrible dancer.  It’s just like lying, terrible and so disappointing.

5. Whoever made it so that Halloween and Daylight Savings Time coincided is GENIUS.

6. A broken elevator is the WORST THING EVER.  Our elevator’s name is Elliot and he’s not working right now.  It’s super disappointing.

7. Don’t wear heels on Halloween.  Poor decision.  Good decision?  A costume involving my Toms.

8. Striped tights are not a good decision.  At least not with booty shorts or a painfully short skirt.  They show anything unpleasant about your upper thighs.

9. DO NOT dress as something that requires upkeep/will be messy.  Homer Simpson lost most of his yellow by the end of the night and YouTube guy was constantly having to take his YouTube off.  My ornaments stayed on rather well until I took them off myself and I wasn’t readjusting all the time like this girl who was dressed as grapes was.  My freshman year a guy dressed up as a white board (he painted his face white and wrote some stuff on it and cute a face out of a white board and attached it to his head) and everyone knew who made out with white board guy because they were also covered in white paint.  So I guess you can dress in something like that if you’re intent on claiming people or something like that….

10. Best costume idea/conception: I saw a girl dressed as Your Mom.  She was wearing an oxford button-up shirt with pearls and a nice skirt and heels.  And an apron with a wooden spoon and plastic gloves.  So the apron kept her from getting things on her nice clothes  And who doesn’t love getting to say Your Mom all night long?

Ode to Pseudonymphomania

A plethora of pseudonyms can serve a woman well…
(Do you think the apple man was really William Tell?)

Indeed, a breezy morn and nary a lover round the place,
a woman might a name or two decide she should embrace…

So many meanings – dare I say, so little time to muse -
will all my many selves at play bring pleasure or confuse?

Pseudo – it’s a word for fake, “nym” replaces name;
Am I not the woman of all faces just the same?

Nymph remains a nubile thing, open, and a sprite -
Cast in myth and dreamy lore, every man’s delight.

Mania is something else; passion fires its roots -
intense, extreme, obsessive drive, in all of its pursuits…

Put the words together then – what meaning do you see?
Many names to fake you out? Simulated glee?

Enthusiastically I say, admitting to my place,
Pseudonymphomaniac, I will claim with grace!

…

Pseudonymphomania – so what is it, really?

What a glorious and wondrous web we weave – and the Internet is indeed the web in which we roll and rumble, recreate ourselves, clothed in anonymity, pseudo anonymity, or alternate paths to exploration, indignation, and sexual instigation!

Sticky, glistening, irresistible – our web wanderings allow us to try on new selves for size, usually in relative safety – and to voice opinions in the millions (billions?) of messages in a bottle, potentially fished from a global sea.

Prepping public personas for pan-planetary consumption? Why not pseudonymphomania? It’s a well-oiled principle, the nom de plume, the freedom to speak and play, certainly encouraged by internet dating sites – this simulated, incognito, quasi-fictitious space where we retain an essence of self and don our trappings of marketing as needed, and privacy – in profiles, stories, opinionated oratory.

Ms. Big, by any other name would smell as sweet?

…

…

As for nymph-like inclinations and nymphomania – might this be our millennial last breath at imagining ourselves as free, sexual beings? (And by the way, who gets to determine what comprises “excessive sexual desire” in a woman, should you care to ponder the definition of nymphomania? Are we back to the discussion of the “P” word? Or is it just PseudoPromiscuity?)

And is our sexual desire simulated? Or simply draped in a dash of incognito for additional license and licentiousness?

Overlapping limbs, tongues, meanings

Ah… give me my overlapping tongues that lick the sweet significance of words into a stimulating, savory and unsavory frenzy! Give me limbs intertwined in morning waking! And words created of a daily-nightly nom de plume, nubile necessity, and a mania for a passionate obsession-to-pursue-pleasure… or better yet, to be pursued, pleasurably!

Oh, a sweet, sticky, verbal, sexual, sensory mess, I must say… and I’m all for it! (And so am I, and so am I, and so are we…) And how about you? And you? And you?

• Modest moms by day, seductresses by night?
• Cashiers and kindergarten teachers through the morning hours, and abstract painters into the evening?
• Professors in the twilight, and poets by the light of the moon?

Aren’t we all pseudo-something, simulating selves and using that to become more than we would be otherwise? Is pseudonymphomania a revelation, a reality, a recognition of the ability to feign and regain sexual diversity through the use of pseudonyms, or is it a passionate and intense posture used to reinvent oneself under separate noms de plume?

What pseudonymphomaniac are you, or do you seek?
Would you like the freedom to relax and truly speak?

Would a simulated name induce you to be more?
And if so, then could we know, what might we have in store?

© D A Wolf

Gerald Joe Moreno And The SheilaWaring Lie

About the pseudonym “sheila waring”, Kevin Shepherd said of Moreno:

kevinrdshepherd.net/html/23___sathya_sai_baba__problems.html
“His many blogs are often registered anonymously. He has resorted to many web pseudonyms such as Equalizer, vishvarupa108, and sheilawaring.”

About the pseudonym “sheilawaring”, Psychic Medium Conny Larsson said of Moreno:

saibabaexpose.com/sheilawaring.html
“Someone using the name ‘sheila waring’ reposted Moreno’s deleted postings on Netscape on July 9 2007- very soon after they had been banned and removed by Netscape. The identity of sheilawaring was concealed, but it is not hard to understad that this was either Moreno himself, or one of his proxies – it makes no real difference. That he must have had a hand in it is beyond doubt. The links are all to his defamatory website at saisathyasai.com Here are screenshots of the pages posted by sheilawaring on Netscape, also subsequently deleted by the netscape administration.”

About the pseudonym “sheila waring”, Robert Priddy said of Moreno:

robertpriddy.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/sathyasaibaba-in-the-shadows/
“He has often avoided using his most known username (joe108) in favour of unidentifiable ones like Equalizer, sheilawaring, or – for most people less identifiable ones like visvarupa 108, SSS108 (on Wikipedia) GM, JM, GJM with or without the 108 suffix and so on All were gradually identified as being his. He has also used diverse IPs in his e-mails and comments, as has been documented on various occasions, though he tries to deny it, the proofs are there for any eventual further use. He denied he was equaliser until exposed definitively as such, and he denies that he posted on Netscape under the username sheilawaring – but he is exposed as having done that just after he had been banned under a previous pseudonym like JM108).”

Let it go on record that Gerald Joe Moreno has never (ever), at any time, used the name “sheila waring” on digg.com, netscape.com (now propeller.com) or anywhere else for that matter. Contrary to Robert Priddy’s senile claims (which he has been spewing all over his blog), Moreno never “denied” using the name “Equalizer” on his blogs. Once again, Robert Priddy makes unsupported, unsubstantiated and un-referenced claims against Moreno.

In an attempt to bolster their absurd claims that Moreno used the “sheila waring” pseudonym, several screencaps were published on Conny Larsson’s website. And thank goodness they did! After seeing the screencaps, Moreno nearly fell out of his chair laughing because Ex-Devotee’s apparently confused “sheila waring” as a Pro-Moreno Activist when in fact “sheila waring” was an Anti-Sai Activist hiding under a fake name! “Sheila Waring” went through all of Moreno’s posts on Netscape and “sunk” all of them (meaning that “sheilawaring” casted votes against all of Moreno’s articles). This is why Moreno’s articles showed up under “sheilawaring’s” Netscape history. One can clearly see the text saying “Sunk On July 09, 2007 07:49pm” below Moreno’s posts. One can also see the text that says “This story has mostly negative ratings” on top of Moreno’s posts with the number of “sinks” made against his articles. Critics used numerous fake names on Netscape to “sink” Moreno’s articles and all of their fake names were banned, including Robert Priddy, Barry Pittard and Brian Steel’s accounts.

SheilaWaring Overview

SheilaWaring Lie Cap1

SheilaWaring Lie Cap2

SheilaWaring Lie Cap3

SheilaWaring Lie Cap4

What a bunch of pathetic and laughable stooges and loons!

Although Ex-Devotees whine and snivel about Moreno’s alleged “pseudonyms”, one will not find a single complaint from any of them about the numerous incognito web identities used by Robert Priddy, Sanjay Dadlani, Tony O’Clery, UsedByBaba, Barbara Dent and R.F.J. Sandt. Ex-Devotees even attempted to pass themselves off as various individuals (including Pro-Sai Activists and Moreno himself). This type of very disturbing online behavior has been fully documented by Moreno (Refs: 01 – 02).

Expect more spin, deflection and cover-ups from Ex-Devotees, who can’t even identify their own acts of subterfuge in action. Yes, this is exactly the type of shabby “research” and laughable “exposés” that Ex-Devotees typically peddle as the “irrefutable truth” to unsuspecting readers. They do the exact same thing in relation to Sathya Sai Baba as well.

My primary motivating factor in being an anonymous blogger is so that my political and religious opinions do not affect potential job opportunities. There is a difference between someone who has “atheist” listed on their Facebook profile and someone who has a blog devoted to it to an employer looking over resumes. I don’t want to not be hired for a job because I’m an anti-theist or for the fact that I’m politically left of Gandhi. However, I constantly struggle with defining exactly what I’m willing to disclose about myself via my pseudonym.

For instance, I was recently emailed an offer by a publishing company to receive an advance review copy (hard cover) of a new atheism-related book coming out soon. I had to turn the offer down because I would have had to disclose my real address. That really sucked to have to do. It is really flattering to be offered an opportunity like that as a small-time blogger. I’ve also wanted to start a local atheist group in Belleville, but that would undoubtedly cause a bridge between me and my blogger self because I thoughtlessly wrote a post about it here before thinking things through.

Another example could be the fact that I’m getting married. We had some minor bumps finding an officiant and venue for the wedding because of my differing religious position to that of my fiancé(atheist – Christian). Exactly how much information can I disclose about my wedding without giving too much?

I’m starting college soon and I’ve already mentioned the specific school on my Twitter(McKendree University). Now If I mention too much about an event concerning a class or classmate that is another potential avenue for trouble. However that trouble has less to do with jobs and more to do with the potential for violence. My fiancé wants me to stay anonymous because she’s afraid someone would try to hurt me. I’m not highly concerned with that but it is something to consider none-the-less.

Right now, my blog’s traffic is pretty dead, but a few months back I got nearly thirty-two thousand views in one month. That was a huge jump up from two thousand. Not everyone who came by agreed with what I had to say.

How much information is too much? At which point have I mentioned enough personal things that someone can figure out who I am? Should I unmask myself to avoid this? Am I even important enough to worry about being deliberately unmasked? I want to share my personal life on this blog, but much of it has to be held back.

While procrastinating for a bit at my day job (hey, it’s noon–normal people take lunch breaks, right?), I decided to Google “using a pseudonym.” What I found was an actually very helpful piece by Howard Zaharoff listing the pros and cons of using an assumed name. Titled A Rose by Any Other Name, the article actually makes a good case for using a false name. The one that I think most applies to my situation is:

Hide Moonlighting

Most writers have day jobs; if they published under their real names their bosses might assume they’re not working hard enough and fix the problem. And sometimes a person just doesn’t want his good name or reputation tarnished by the opinionated or risqué works he’s writing.

Now, I don’t write my fiction while at work. However, I am concerned about developing two identities: one as a PR professional working in education/government and one as a fiction writer experimenting with style and subject matter. It has already happened once where a flash piece I published was spotted by my employer. He was complimentary, but I privately view his acknowledgment of my writing as, well, a sort of personal warning. A warning that what I do in my “off time” is noticed. By now it’s a given that you shouldn’t facebook or twitter comments about your work or post items that damage your professional credibility. In a sense, writing fiction and promoting it online is the same kind of thing when you’re also a professional writer in an essentially corporate capacity.

But it’s not so simple as saying, okay then, use a fake name for all fiction. Why? Firstly, narcissism. I like having a portfolio blending my PR and creative work. I would like to be known as a fiction writer under my real name. Secondly, practicality. I hold onto hope of joining an MFA program sometime in, well, the next decade. I would like to be publishing under my name since I think using a pseudonym would complicate demonstrating my past publishing experience. And it looks pretty self-inflating to use a pseudonym, especially when you’re a young, struggling novice.

Monday I submitted a piece to an online journal under my real name. It’s not super edgy beyond using the words “shit” and “sex,” so I’d be comfortable posting it to my online portfolio under my real name if by some oversight of fate it’s accepted. But where is the line between what I will publish under my name and what I won’t? I don’t know yet.

I am anxious, though, to start crafting content under the name Essem Kay. I’m excited to see who, if anyone, she becomes.

I ordered these two Ursula Grant Midwoods because I liked the covers.  She only did a couple stand alone movels and a few doubles, but looking at th style, this is obviously Joan/Julie Ellis writing under this pen name. Odd, as the name is not listed as attahed to her, like Linda Michaels and Jill Monte are.

Ellis’ style is too distinct, easy to recognize, and the themes of the above are classis Joan Ellis: the college hellion and the woman going for the younger lover.

I will review these two down the line…but next: an early Midwood by Fred Martin, Hired Lover, that is obviously Orrie Hitt…

Also found out that Barbara Brooks was a female pen name for William Coons, who penned some Andrew Shaws and Don Hollidays at Nightstand…

If you have the time to get lost for a few hours (or days) in the random world of finding, no site beats archive.org. Well actually there are three. The other two are rhizome.org and ubuweb.com. But, archive is where I found what may be the two number one electronic composers currently on the planet. (Ever pick up on the nuance of ‘planet-small’ and ‘globe-huge’..?…the threat of ‘planetary warming’ is just too low caliber support the construction of a complete geo-social action template…plus there’s that inconvenient subliminal Clark Kent association). Without the presumption a fired-up critique would entail, let’s just say noisecollector is more interesting than what you’re listening to. I’ve been sampling and cutting them up into little soundtracks and they work to, “…put you in touch with what you know and do not know that you know,” as Burroughs once put it. Over the last fifth of the twentieth century, tattoos and pseudonyms have shot upward through popular culture like a pair of Akula class submarines on emergency blow. The pseudonym originated, I hypothesize, within a social segment engaged in activities requiring a layer of  anonymity in the neighborhood and the tattoo is a dissertation unto itself. At any rate, both have eclipsed what beads and dashikis ever were as contemporary emblems of one’s social consciousness and ideological orientation.  There’s also the thing about the shaved head with the goatee but, not right now. I’m willing to bet the rent that my main men Deadman and Digi Hartatak are sportin’ big ink. The url for noisecollector is epic long but thanks to html all you have to do is click on the link. Go there and pour all of their stuff into your pod.

Noisecollector / Deadman and Digi Hartatak

Rule of this blog: Name’s marked with an asterisk (*) are pseudonyms.

I’ve been contemplating if I should “unlove” Elmo* or something. He’s my Biscuit. I love him. But I don’t know if he’d be able to be the same again. It all started during the first jam session. Ledger Lies* was still a twinkle in our eyes. Different vocalist during that time (Mind you, Nicole* was being a bitch, but we’ll get back to that) Out dismissal time was 12. So we had nothing better to do. They decided to play. Ariel* wasn’t around this time because he’s a freaking FAG. So back to the story. We first went out to have lunch. I was carrying a paper bag and I asked Josh* to carry it for me. Being the ass that he is, he made Elmo carry it, unbeknownst to me. I still don’t know their names at around this time, only Josh and Laurent*. And I had a crush on Job cause he’s cute. When I saw Elmo carrying the bag, I was like “Oh, I am so sorry.” and he just smiled and said that it was okay. Then, yeah, had lunch. Was the prayer leader. Fuck, I was the only FREAKING Catholic there. I guess they made fun of the fact, grrr. Yeah, after that, we went to the rehearsal studio. He and Nicole were particularly close. Then he made up a lie about them being cousins so that I would stop bickering them about how cute they looked like (Ick, look at me pretending to like Nicole). During the session, I was just roughhousing with Denver* when Elmo decided to make me sing the song My Heart by Paramore. It was freaking cute because while I was singing, he was just staring into my eyes and stuff. (BRB. Hyperventilating) Me and Nicole started talking after that and shit. And the next day, I asked her if she has Elmo’s number then she gave it to me. I texted him, and he replied, “Hey Christy! I was too shy to text you. I asked Nicole for your number.” So that started the slew of text messages that followed. I’m only giving you the best of it. Mind you, it’s tl;dr and I’ve translated them all. So if you read the real messages, they’re all dead sweet.

“You’re the only one I can talk about things like this.”

–07/08/09, 10:30 PM

“Yes, that’s what I’m going to do. Thanks, Christy. I love you. Wait, go to sleep. We have an early day tomorrow. Don’t be a zombie. Haha”

–07/08/09. 10:36 PM

“Thanks. But if they hurt you, I’ll kill them. No joke.”

–07/09/09, 6:55 PM

“Haha. Love you, too. Let’s let them be. What are you doing?”

–07/09/09, 6:59 PM

“I live in Marikina. Move here, too.”

–07/09/09. 7:09 PM

“Christy? Are you sleeping? Haha. Cool! Good night Tintin. See you tomorrow. Thanks for being there for me even on SMS, huge relief for me! Cool. You’re More than blessed.”

–07/09/09, 9:44 PM

“Christy. Muah! Haha”

–07/13/09, 7:35 PM

“My ambition? Simple, to make all your dreams come true.”

–07/13/09, 9:34 PM

“Ok Christy. Get mad if you want. I’ll commit suicide”

–07/15/09, 12:22 PM

“Christy, how can I find the happiness of one person?”

–07/17/09, 8:30 AM

“Hey, any news? Why didn’t you go to school?”

–07/24/09, 12:17 PM

After that, I didn’t text him any more. I only saved the special ones. Now, I miss him. This is just the part one. I need to make peace with what I’m feeling.

As you can see, I am real. But to protect me and the people concerned, names have been changed. Every name is a pseudonym. Mine is Christianna Elis. Call me Christy. I manage a band named Ledger Line, yet another pseudonym of the real band name. Consisting of the following people made out of pseudonyms:

Raya Manalo (Vox)

Ariel Dilim (Lead Guitar)

Laurent Maylin (Rhythm Guitar)

Elmo Ortiz (Bass Guitar)

Job Regulado (Keyboards/Piano)

Josh Boulder (drums)

You see, Raya and Laurent are lovebirds. Elmo, is the love of my life. I don’t know what got to him, but after I admitted that I loved him, he started becoming aloof. Job and Ariel could care less as long as they can showcase their talents. And Josh, well, he’s a hyped-up smoker that is very, very extreme. I’ve done enough things to make this band big enough. But thanks to Raya’s mom, we can’t do anything because she is against the BAND.

Yes, I am Filipino and I’m a college student at a very pink university here in Manila. Me, Raya and Laurent are on the same course. And the other guys are Music students. I have Italian and Spanish roots. And I am in love with a guy who would never give me a second glance.

I was horrified to learn that one of my favourite bloggers, Peas on Toast, has such an ardent ‘fan’ out there that she has been copying her original posts (sometimes verbatim, sometimes not) practically since starting out in the blogosphere.

The problem with this problem, is that blogging isn’t exactly a platform where plagiarism can be easily picked up on. What with pingbacks and the fact that blogs ARE so easy to access and copy snippets from – in fact, I’d go so far as to say that half of the blog posts I read are a rehash of what others have said before. People often use pseudonyms (and no, Copyblogger does not copy other peoples’ blogs, as the name implies), so ownership is a tricky issue – unlike in the print world, where it is clear from the start that the work was researched, compiled and written by a certain person who works for a certain company – therefore if you are not this person, you need permission to use their words, or to at the very least credit them as the original author.

It’s a murky world out there – be careful, and make sure you are not stepping on anyone`s toes when using their content. Keep strong, Peas – your loyal fans will still follow your word.

I’ve just read George Steiner on the great sinologist Joseph Needham in his collection of essays, My Unwritten Books. Needless to say it’s phenomenally erudite, not to say highly original and provocative, and I’m far too ignorant to comment on it in any detail, but I would like to ask a couple of questions.

First, I was extremely surprised to read that “Under a pseudonym, and unnoticed by most of his scientific colleagues, Needham published historical novels dramatising the fate and doctrines of radical sects during the Cromwellian period” (pp. 4-5). Well I never! What was the pseudonym, how many novels, what are their titles? And are they any good? Simon Winchester, in his racy and highly readable biography of Needham, Bomb, Book and Compass (published in the U.S. as The Man Who Loved China for some strange reason) makes no mention of Needham the novelist… I’m interested in this incidentally because I interviewed Needham for Reuters a couple of years before he died, and recently reviewed Winchester’s book for Asian Affairs, journal of the Royal Society of Asian Affairs. Anyone remotely interested in Needham, one of the towering intellects of the 20th century yet remarkably little known, should definitely read Winchester’s book, even if it’s an unscholarly biography of a great scholar.

My other main point is that–and I say this with great trepidation–Steiner seems to have made a mistake. About bores. No, not that kind of bore, tidal bores. Steiner says (p. 21):

“Nor must we forget that China possesses one of the only two great tidal bores or eagres [!] in the world, on the Chien-Tang, or Fuchun, River near Hangchow (the other operates at the northern mouth of the Amazon).”

This seems a rather surprising claim. Surely the Severn bore is a world class tidal bore, and the Bay of Fundy is too, so I wonder why Steiner claims there are only two great bores, and neither of these extremely famous ones makes it?

One other point: My Unwritten Books is so-called because it’s a book about seven books which Steiner has thought of writing but never did. In the late 1970s he was asked by Professor Frank Kermode to contribute to his popular and influential series of “Modern Masters”. Steiner proposed writing about Needham, but admits:

“Being neither a biologist or a sinologist schooled neither in chemistry nor in oriental studies, my lack of qualification, the impertinence of my suggestion, were patent. But I had long been spellbound by Needham’s titanic enterprise and by his kaleidoscopic persona. Had there been a more learned, a more inclusive mind and purpose since that of Leibnitz? What I had in mind was a possibly irresponsible approach to both the man and his works.” (p. 1)

The project didn’t come off, of course, but the reason Steiner gives is interesting. It was because Needham had claimed that the Americans had used bacteriological weapons during the Korean war, and refused to discuss, still less withdraw, the claim when he went to discuss the putative biography with Needham some 25 years later.

“Jospeh [sic] Needham’s irritation, his anger were manifest. Even more so, the mendacity within that anger. He gave no direct reply, It is said that those with a trained ear can detect the minute flaw in a glass goblet when they pass their fingers arond the rim. I heard this flaw, unmistakably, in Needham’s voice. I sensed it in his posture. There could, from that moment on, be no realistic prospect of reciprocal trust. We did not meet again.

“I never wrote the little book. But the wish to do so has stayed with me” (p. 3).

I sympathise with Steiner to some extent. The germ warfare claim was refuted not long after Needham made it, and it didn’t do his political reputation any good. When I was reading Chinese at Cambridge in the late 1960s, I remember Needham defending the use of the daily readings from the Little Red Book as analogous to Christians reading the Bible (this was at the height of the Cultural Revolution), and thinking that was extremely naive of the great man.

But maybe another reason Steiner didn’t write his study of Needham is that sage as he is, he isn’t that well read in classical Chinese astronomical, chemical, biological or engineering texts, as his ability to read Chinese isn’t that great, and without reading such texts one can hardly evaluate Needham’s magnum opus…

Ed Whelan got trounced by Publius of Obsidian Wings – one too many times, apparently – and decided, since he couldn’t win an argument with Publius, he’d try to beat him up some other way.

Here’s how: Re: Exposing Ed Whelan – Bench Memos on National Review Online

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Update: Ed Whelan apologised, and Publius accepted. I find it ironic that Whelan behaved better than Kathryn Cramer under the same circumstances – and that his apology, however clumsy, was better-expressed than BitchPhD’s sorry-you-were-offended. In fact, not just ironic: I find it actively depressing. I’d rather Whelan had to look to SF fans and feminists for a good example, not the other way about.

Remember, kids, whenever you don’t like what someone says, you’re free to set out to ruin their life. That’s what America is all about.

Who is this woman?

For serious, who is she? 

I’ve been going by a fake name since I picked up a nickname in high school and started to market it rather aggressively. It was all so innocent at first, labeling my locker at school with my jangly new moniker and doling out access to it in the style of high school girls with an inside joke. “You’re so weird,” “No, I’m spooky.” Lower case, thanks. I thought I was a radical as I explained to my friends that capitalizing nouns led to inflation of the ego, but in reality I was a typical teenage girl; being unassuming in an assuming way. After high school, I left my hometown for two years to go to school and when I came back, I started using “spooky” as a primary, rather than secondary label. The leap required introducing myself by this clearly fabricated name, but most people took it in stride, shaking my hand a beat longer than usual and repeating it back to clarify. Some people, people I knew were no fun and probably of little use to me, wouldn’t let go of my hand until I’d given them my birth name, so I made up elaborate stories that changed every time I told them, it was great fun. “Oh, it’s from Old Swedish. It comes from ’spoken’ which means “harbinger,” but it didn’t translate exactly.” I was astonished how many people believed me. 

There are a lot of upsides to going by a fake name, nobody can google my home address or snoop through public records, which I enjoy, but my anonymity is imperfect at best. I caught a friend snooping through my trash looking for bills with my real name on them. He did it twice because he found it once and then forgot it; maybe I should start shredding my paper waste. Using a fake name also invites a lot of mystery into mundane transactions. Lately, I’ve started assuming waitresses go by fake names the way strippers do, or that every name tag on the shirt of every underpaid hourly wage hack carries a sort of commercial nom de guerre. I wouldn’t blame them if they did. Maybe they should unionize and all decide to have the same name. A store full of Daves. 

An interesting and unintended side effect of this renaming has been the divergence of “spooky” and my other name. Though I did not set out to develop a persona, it happened anyway. Spooky drinks beer before noon and throws rotting produce off the roof. My other name, the one that goes on the dotted line, checks her credit score and crosses one item after the next off her detailed “to do” list. I feel protective over my nickname, the way one might feel about publishing ones home address, and was loathe to include it in this blog. I did, though, obviously, for the sake of clarity…. and honestly if you’re reading my drivel, you’ve earned the right to know.

But yeah, that’s how I roll.