Confessions of a Blogo-Slug

“Blogging isn’t writing,” says the scientific researcher played by Elliott Gould in “Contagion.” “It’s just graffiti with punctuation.”
Now let me say up front that I don’t AGREE with that sentiment – I read and enjoy too many blogs to turn against them on principle.
Still, when I ask myself why I’m such an inconstant blogger, I wonder if some small part of me resists the idea of cluttering the world’s electronic walls with yet more unsightly verbiage.
Or maybe it’s just that after a day of writing, the last thing I want to do is … write. Kind of like the cobbler who comes home to a pile of unmended shoes. “Mm. I wonder what Snooki’s up to….”
Or maybe I’m just freakin’ lazy.
Whatever the reason, I’ve been pretty much a blogo-slug for the last few months. And so in the spirit of 2012 resolutions, I hereby vow to … try to be … a little better about it … kind of. How does that sound?
And so I’ll start with the simplest stuff. Here’s what’s up with me.
** I’m hard at work on Novel #7. For those of you who haven’t been alerted (and who followed my much-publicized Search for the Next Subject), it’s a book about Teddy Roosevelt and his son in the Brazilian jungle. Think “Heart of Darkness” with more bluster and bully.
** Next month comes the paperback publication of “The School of Night.” So if you’ve been holding off on buying a copy because you don’ t like shelling out for hardbacks or you don’t own an e-reader … well, now’s your chance. Additional attractions: some back-of-the-book meanderings and jottings by Your Humble Scribe. And a chance to see some of the works I drew on to create Thomas Harriot’s world. And a really cool new book cover.
** I’ll be appearing at the Tucson, Arizona, book festival on March 10 to 11. It may be the largest book festival I’ve ever been part of, and the luminaries attending will include Elmore Leonard and Larry McMurtry. Need I say more?
** Department of Strange But True: I’m the singer in a Washington, DC-area jazz quintet. We’re called the Captones, and we play at parties, schools, weddings, old folks’ homes. We’re digging it. Music, it turns out, really is the food of love. Well, it’s tasty, anyway.
So thanks, folks, for sticking with me during my long, long radio silences. I promise I never forget about any of you – not even when I’m scrambling to find documentation for my mortgage refi.
And remember, you can always follow me on Twitter (Louis Bayard) or on Facebook (Louis Bayard the Author).
Back from the blogo-dead,

LPB