Interview with ren.kat from “Sidestepping Real”

“Sidestepping Real”

http://sidesteppingreal.blogspot.com

I wrote an article for a friend’s magazine about how Spiderman Two was immoral and how I’d rather they watched the entire Star Wars series again and again (it’s called Kill the Mermaid, if you’re curious). It felt so good to get that off my chest and know someone else was reading it. I could wait around collecting rejection slips instead of writing or I could just get it online myself. It wasn’t an easy choice. I like the pat-on-the-back of an editor. For me, blogging is an exercise in self-esteem, too, I think.

Only since the summer of 2006. I actually set up a blog and wrote for a month, then deleted it in a fit of insecurity.

Things I’d otherwise bore my husband with or wear out my email buddies by ranting to them instead of writing personal emails they deserve. To be really honest, lately I’ve been wondering if I blog in part because I’m not longer teaching theater to extraordinarly bright and curious teens, and don’t get to spout off and discuss all the ethical conundrums I love digging into. I guess, like most of us, I do like to hear myself talk. (It helps me think more clearly).

I list them on my own blog. Some I like to read, some I love to look at. I’m discovering new blogs and voices everyday through silly memes. There’re not so silly after all.

I should be asking all of you.

Yes!

Yes- my brother subscribes! And so does a friend of mine in England, and another friend checks in regularly from Connecticut.

Not yet. I do belong to listservs.

At work - I have a nice office and only work half-days. Leaves me time to write and to blog. I also blog in the evenings while the family watches television (if I’m not on the couch, too).

Too much.

Yes, I do. I don’t find them that helpful, to be honest. Topics can be hit and miss and one person’s literature is another person’s porn- same goes for politics.

I think it was on the Wom-po listserve (Women Poets). Ron Silliman sent in posts with lists of topics and a link. First time I’d seen that.

It must have been Ron Silliman’s blog.

The unfamiliar. The complex and contradictory truths.

I have another blog and a small website that promotes my books.