Hey, folks. Can I ask…

Hey, folks. Can I ask you a favor? The more people who respond, the better this will work.

I feel like I've gotten really out of touch with who's reading this blog over the last few years. When I started, it was mostly people who liked my erotica. And for a while after that, when I was doing a lot of editing, it was mostly hopeful writers. Now it's more than a decade later, and I really don't know who's out there.

So, not that I'm necessarily going to change what I talk about based on this, but I think it'd help me pick some days what I'm going to talk about if I'm thinking of gazillion things, which I mostly am at the moment. So if you wouldn't mind, could you take a moment and vote in the comments as to which of the below topics you like seeing here? Please vote for as many as you enjoy.

  1. writing (mine or otherwise)
  2. business of publishing
  3. teaching / academia
  4. SF / F
  5. crafty posts with photos (yarn, stained glass, etc.)
  6. home renovation (mostly what's going on at our Victorian under construction)
  7. interior design with photos (mostly other people's photos / places)
  8. photos of children / dog
  9. letters to children / posts about them
  10. housekeeping / recipes / other domesticities
  11. Kevin / Jed / romantic relationships / sex or lack thereof
  12. political or other random rants
And if there's something else that I regularly blog about that I'm forgetting here and that you like, feel free to add that in.

If you want to add a note about who you are and what you're interested in, in general, that'd be extra cool.

Thanks so much!!!

(Secretly, I am afraid that there are only five of you left.)

37 thoughts on “Hey, folks. Can I ask…”

  1. All of the above! I tend to pay less attention to the yarn stuff and the recipes than to everything else, but I think it’s clear that plenty of your readers like those, so this isn’t a vote to leave them out.

  2. Well, everything really, except that my eyes tend to glaze over at an excess of craft and home design (but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t post it! what I’ve seen here wasn’t excess yet and if it ever is I’ll just skip it).

  3. Former Clarion student! I find myself most enamored of things 5-10, which are all the sort of domestic/crafty stuff — but that may be because there’s been less about teaching/SF/publishing/writing/relationship in the past year or so, and I’m tuned to what I’ve been getting.

  4. I am voting Yes or Abstain for each item.

    Yes writing (mine or otherwise)
    Yes business of publishing
    Yes teaching / academia
    Yes SF / F
    Abstain crafty posts with photos (yarn, stained glass, etc.)
    Abstain home renovation (mostly what’s going on at our Victorian under
    construction)
    Abstain interior design with photos (mostly other people’s photos / places)
    Abstain photos of children / dog
    Yes letters to children / posts about them
    Abstain housekeeping / recipes / other domesticities
    Yes Kevin / Jed / romantic relationships / sex or lack thereof
    Yes political or other random rants

    With all of love,

    C. J. Czelling

  5. I read erratically based upon the summary on your facebook page but in general I prefer the person to the professional topics: So I guess these would be my preferences. In general it is fun to catch up on your life

    5. crafty posts with photos (yarn, stained glass, etc.)
    6. home renovation (mostly what’s going on at our Victorian under construction)
    8. photos of children / dog
    9. letters to children / posts about them
    10. housekeeping / recipes / other domesticities
    11. Kevin / Jed / romantic relationships / sex or lack thereof
    12. political or other random rants

  6. 1. writing (mine or otherwise)
    3. teaching / academia
    5. crafty posts with photos (yarn, stained glass, etc.)
    6. home renovation (mostly what’s going on at our Victorian under construction)
    7. interior design with photos (mostly other people’s photos / places)
    8. photos of children / dog
    9. letters to children / posts about them
    10. housekeeping / recipes / other domesticities
    11. Kevin / Jed / romantic relationships / sex or lack thereof
    12. political or other random rants

    So almost all of the above, though if you write about the other two topics, I still read them! I just not as knowledgeable about those subjects.

    My favourites would have to be 1, and 5-10, mainly because I got married two years ago, and am in the process of renovating my house, and have always loved children and animals, and crafts.

    Your writing always interests me, because I love reading it!

  7. Hello! I’ve been a lurker for a while. please forgive me for going on a bit.

    I’m, um, a French translator (En->Fr). I found your erotica online when I was younger – around 1998? – and a few essays about writing erotica, I think? And it opened my mind right up to many things that became slowly crucial for me. Then I completely lost touch with your name and your work, although I never forgot what I’d gleaned from reading your stuff, and I knew I would recognize your name if I came across it.

    In all that time I became very involved in the online (livejournal type) slash fandom, if such an entity can be said to exist, and I learned to write my own erotica, or, rather, my own pornography. Last year during Racefail some people linked to your blog (before you wrote about the imbroglio on Scalzi’s Whatever), and I teared up and gibbered happily because there you were! Being awesome! And I’d found you again! :))

    So I’ve been reading the blog ever since. I all all your types of posts, and I love above all that they all are here and mingle in the same space. It’s probably my long habit of reading OLJs and livejournal blogs, plus all my craft reading, but, yeah, the mix is what I love most about it.

    I’m a knitter too, and I’m maybe particularly interested in relationships ? But the home making stuff (recipes! yum!) and the renovation and dealing with multicultural things and the writing thoughts… they’re all good. Seriously. Bring it on. I’m just happy I found you again. :))

  8. Hi! I’m a lurker. I found your blog through your post about writing the other at John Scalzi’s blog, and, well, you’re interesting. 🙂 I’ve been fascinated with your house renovation, especially since I live in a rental and won’t be doing anything like that for at least a few years. I’m also interested in the rest of the items you mentioned. So… I vote for “all of the above”.

  9. Julia Kholodenko

    You know who I am….
    Since you started following me on twitter, I then started following you back. Now and again I’ll follow a link that you post to your journal, mostly if I missed the context of your tweet or have a few moments on my mobile while I’m waiting for something.
    It’s nice to see your face on my mobile and hear what you’re up to. So, as I mostly just read tweets, I don’t have any real input as to what to post about on your journal, just that it makes me happy to know you’re out there doing things that make you happy….
    And really, I like sometimes to hear about when you are stressed too, as I often read about it as I am feeling stressed. It helps me to feel less alone, even if you’re not actively thinking about me in particular as the one reading your messages.

  10. I admit I haven’t been reading regularly, mostly keeping up with you via Twitter. I love any of your posts I do read.

    I love your views on SF/F. I Like hearing about your children and gos. I love your writing stuff and biz/publishing. I skim the home renovation posts.

    Mostly I think you should write about what you want. I just haven’t been reading blogs as much.

  11. My top three are teaching/academia, letters to kids, politics. I almost never read the crafty posts but I love the colors in them so keep posting pictures!

    Of course as everyone says, write what you want to write! Apparently what I’ve just said is: I like it when you write about the things I’m mulling over on my own time.

  12. I agree with Jed. I read your journal because i quite like you and am interested in your thought processes. I love the baby/child pictures. The discussion of academic life is interesting for the comparing and contrasting with how mine goes.

    When you write about crafts, yarn projects, etc, I feel as though my horizons are being expanded in ways I would not otherwise experience.

    I am a long-time sf fan, and would be really disappointed if that topic were omitted.

  13. I’m a reader of your writing and also a friend-of-a-friend.

    I like almost all of these topics and wouldn’t vote any of them off the island. I tried choosing an ‘upper half’ of favorites, but it turns out nine of the twelve are in my upper ‘half’.

  14. I have been lurking on your blog for about six months. I like to hear about your writing and your writing process. I also like to hear about what you do as a part of your university classes. I love love love the craft and design sections and I like to see pictures of your cooking and parties. I’m interested in your home renovation because I recently got my first home and am learning about house related projects. I also like to hear about your family and the stories you tell about holidays and trips with your family and some of the things you encounter while raising small children.

  15. Mary Anne Mohanraj

    Heh. Okie, I guess the variety is okay. Also, there are still some folks reading, which is very nice — I had started to think they’d all gone to Facebook. I am too old to adapt to hanging out on Facebook, it seems. I like blogs. Or what we used to call online journals, back in the day.

    It’d still be nice to hear from any more folks, but I think my attack of insecurity has been sufficiently assuaged.

  16. My favorite topics:

    3. teaching/academia
    4. SF/F
    9. children
    11. romantic relationships

    I also enjoy:
    1. writing
    2. publishing
    6. home renovation
    7. interior design
    8. photos

    I’ve been reading your journal for some crazy number of years (12ish?), long enough that I have no idea what the original connection might have been. I will say that I am not a writer nor do I want to be, but I find your posts about the process of writing/publishing fascinating in part because of that – I know so little about how it works and it is fun to get those insights. And also – I never mind having more posts, although obviously they take time for you to write. But even when you hit on topics of less interest to me – which hasn’t happened often – I am still happy to have them there for me to skim or skip as I choose. The variety of topics is part of what has kept me reading for so long, so please don’t feel pressured to squeeze into any particular blogging category.

  17. Back in my day, we didn’t have any of these “online” journals. We carved our journals on stone tablets with chisels, like God intended! (If we didn’t have chisels, we used our teeth!)

    If we wanted to share a journal entry, we carved it on a cliff face.

    I remember back in nineteen aught and thirty-two, when I carved a 140-character message about what I’d had for lunch into a granite cliff face in South Dakota. It took three years.

  18. All of the above. And I’m loving the Victorian home renovation details so far! I’ve been reading your blog for well over a decade (I believe I found your blog when you were editor at Clean Sheets, which I found from Jane’s Guide back when I started writing erotica) and have enjoyed following your life through school, relationships, jobs, writing, teaching and parenthood. You have been an inspiration in a dozen different ways, from the poly stuff to the writing stuff to the cooking/crafting stuff. I have made your recipes, read your books and shared your opinions with my friends in real life and on my blog. And when I was going through the trials of pregnancy (and fibroids), your advice and experience gave me hope.

    I’m a writer and editor (primarily erotica/erotic romance). I’m also a college instructor (English and Humanities at the community college level). I’m thinking about pursuing a MFA or PhD. I’m a new mom. I’m 42. I crochet, I cook, I love photography, I’ve experimented with poly relationships, I love animals, I love to travel. My best friend lives in Chicago. I have a 2 month old son, a husband of 19+ years (who is currently deployed to Dubai) and I live in Virginia. And if you ever stopped blogging, I’d probably cry. 😉

  19. I’m a reader and a WisCon regular, and I’ve enjoyed hearing you on panels there. I was very impressed by your contributions on Whatever during RaceFail. I enjoy everything you’re writing on your blog. I do feel slightly like a voyeur sometimes, because I don’t really know you personally, but I find everything you write really interesting. It must be because you’re a good writer! As others have said, the variety is cool.

  20. I started reading your blog because you were a friend of a friend and he was visiting you and I wanted to see the pics of his trip! I like everything – prolly the writing and scifi the least. But I read it all – just skim an entry if I am not to into it. I love that you write so much and about so many things. So keep writing what you like and I will kepp reading most. 🙂

  21. I’ve been lurking ever since my boyfriend (Ro) whom you met at ArtWallah, told me that you were house hunting. Since I am house-crazed, I had to look; I even backtracked to see the houses you looked at before you selected yours (deeply demented!).
    You mentioned not fully transitioning to FB, I’m glad. To me FB is a telegram, the blog is a letter.
    I like the variety, and the unvarnished honesty with which you write about your life. Like many of your readers I just skim the stuff I’m not into (SF), and devour the rest. Surprisingly I love the crafty parts, especially the pix.
    The letters to your children are lovely and moving. I think of the opportunity that they will have as adults to know you & Kevin as full human beings in a way that most of us never get to know our parents.
    I would love to see you write a book about your life, just the way you do in your blog. I think it would sell well and touch a lot of people. To me your honesty, openness, and sweet nature are your greatest gifts.
    I would feel bereft without a dose of your life everyday.
    Andre

  22. 1, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 are my favorites, though I generally enjoy anything you write.

    Incidentally, since I’m de-lurking, your erotica was one of the first things I remember reading online (not sure how I found it). I was… erm, maybe 16 at the time (and carefully hiding from my parents!). But it was a joy to rediscover your blog years later.

  23. I vote for everything! This is your space, so you should write about anything you feel like. I came to your blog through the Chicago Mom’s blog page I think, when I was looking up polyamory. And have been hooked on your writing since. Cheers!

  24. I found you because I heard you wrote South Asian spec fic, and then I contacted you for that interview that, in the end, didn’t pan out. But I am still so excited about your future work and the wonderful posts on race you’ve made. 🙂

  25. I like it all but then I like you. Seeing as you are the reason I have been crocheting for the last 18 months, I would like for you to keep posting about the crochet stuff.

    This is your journal so I think you should write about whatever you want and to hell with what anyone else thinks. If they don’t like it, they can skip/skim the entry or bugger off.

  26. You probably remember me from WisCon 2009 + the Thoughtcrime Experiments anthology that published your awesome story “Jump Space” last year. Which reminds me that I should ensure people can buy the anthology at the Dealer’s Room or something this year, since you’re Guest of Honor…

    I most enjoy reading your posts about: “writing (mine or otherwise), business of publishing, teaching / academia, SF / F, crafty posts with photos (yarn, stained glass, etc.), letters to children / posts about them, housekeeping / recipes / other domesticities, Kevin / Jed / romantic relationships / sex or lack thereof, political or other random rants”, but it’s not like I really mind the other categories. I’m not the most graphically inclined person so photos don’t do as much for me as they do for others, and of course I’m hella insecure about how much more I consume than create, so that makes me feel envious when I read your posts about cooking/crafting/remodeling/writing/etc. But that’s my issue and I’m working on seeing productive folk like you as role models/inspirations rather than gatekeepers/yardsticks. And if I don’t care for something, the spacebar is a very handy Page Down key!

  27. Mary Anne Mohanraj

    Sumana, I’m always a little startled when people talk about how much I create, because I always feel so behind. There’s so much more in my head than ever makes it out into the world. Sigh.

    But if it helps, do keep in mind that I do a lot of ‘project triage’, in that I try to pick the projects that can be done very quickly. Small effort, big reward. Like that chain loop cowl the other day — literally just something to keep my hands busy while watching two episodes of tv. I love that kind of thing.

    Also, I mostly don’t bother to blog about the stuff I don’t do. Like the other night, when I planned to cook dinner, but ended up only getting as far as marinating the meat and then giving up. Sometimes Kevin finishes the cooking, or we order out, or we eat hot dogs or ramen. Often, in fact. But I don’t bother blogging it, usually.

  28. Mary Anne Mohanraj

    Everyone else — I don’t have time right now to answer all these individually, but I LOVE reading them. It’s really lovely to know you’re all out there; makes me feel much more like I’m talking to a nice little group of folks, rather than speaking into the void. 🙂

Leave a Reply to Matt F. Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *