Such wicked creatures are we

A few bloggers have recently put forth an interesting question: Does one choose to blog anonymously, or do we reveal ourselves? It is something that I have caught myself pondering more and more often over the last few months.

I have kept several online journals over the years, under different names and for altogether different reasons. Some were personal in nature, lengthy accounts of my daily life, meant for the eyes for the handful of people who even knew where to look. Others were public and fandom-based, kept for the sake of discussing my television, comic book or film obsessions of the moment (and, yes, cataloging my expansive fanfiction library. I did not win in the Long Fiction category of the Men of Middle Earth Awards 2009 for nothing. But that was another life.). I may not have always handed away the particulars of my life, my location, my photograph or my given name, but I was transparent in all other ways. I took steps to be as genuine as I could be to whomsoever was reading my blog. I wanted to make sure that my voice online reflected who I really am.

These days I blog under my given name, recent photograph attached and any and all personal information just a click away. I publish fiction about everything from werewolves to zombies to girls with black holes for hearts, and write articles whenever I have the time, on varying topics and toward various ends. I’m honestly not worried that you might find it strange that I pen writing articles along with psychological horror, queer romance literature with bizarro. I’m really not worried what my coworkers and peers must think of me when they read my Facebook status updates and Tweets. Maybe I should be, but I’m not. These are the contents of my mind, turned out and splattered across the internet for any passersby to digest. It comes with the territory.

As a writer, I have a natural eagerness to be honest with my readers. I want them to sense me through my writing, my changing dispositions, my fleeting obsessions and my ticks. I’ve come to believe that’s the only way you can really reach people in a world where actors, presidents and grandmothers alike are all counting followers and page hits. Just as I want readers to understand the reasons that my characters live their lives, I want them to know why I write what I write. People seem to surround themselves with their personas, these built-up characterizations and pseudo-celebrity avatars designed garner followers and pad the friend’s list. Instead I want to be an open book, accessible and approachable, and maybe if I’m lucky, interesting enough to warrant a second look. And a third, and even a fourth.

I want to live my online life without masks and falsehoods. Who I am in my blog is who I am on the street, or in the grocery store, or in line at the bank. Perhaps if I had chosen another path, or had some sense of shame about what I was putting out into the world, I would be more protective of my identity. Those of you with professional standards to maintain and families to protect, I understand keeping a certain safe distance between yourself and the world. But I really am a hula-hooping, Star Trek-watching, horror fiction-publishing, queer romance-writing something-or-another. What you read is what you get, and I’m content with that.