Pre-Gaming

I've never cared for the word "blog."  I mean, really, say it out loud.  Right now.  Blog.  Blog.  Tell me that's an attractive word.  My midwestern-cum-mid-Atlantic accent makes it sound like I'm trying to cough something up.  A Southern accent--drawing the "o" out into an "ah" or "aw"--might conjure an image of an ugly, if harmless, swamp creature.  Going Aussie makes it sound like a sort of minor infection.  I think the fact that anyone can say the word without either gagging or giggling says something about where we are as a culture. 

This is just about the word, mind you.  I have no philosophical problems with platform (obviously).  Even if I did, tough shit, this is just the way the opinion-shaping and promotional industries have shifted.  Oh, what's that?  "Promotional?"  Yeah, about that... I wrote a novel: Nos Populus.  Self-published it (a story for another time).  It's available on Amazon now, will be available for Kindle within the next week or so, and I hope to have some other outlets open soon, too.  I'd be lying if I said I'd have started this blog with or without all that as an incentive.  But I promise not to use this thing solely for the purposes of shilling. 

This blog, The Half-Drunken Scribe, is somewhere between a heartfelt project and a whim.  As such, I'm not totally sure where's it's going.  And I know that's probably the best way to make sure it never goes anywhere, but Nos Populus started the same way, so there.  Over time I'll write what I think and feel, comment on any subject that comes to mind.  Politics will show up, both as promotion for the book and because it's something I know well enough that can also get some readership (hello, page hits).  There'll also be literary and film discussion; I'll talk about Nos Populus (as well as any future novels).  Music, sports, current events, alcohol (the title will have a payoff, I promise).  Really, I'm willing to talk about whatever, so long as it helps entertains people who are bored at work and sharpens my writing.  If I get an audience, I'll write on almost whatever you want.  You'll inform the discussion and give me some prompts, for lack of a better word.  And if that audience goes one direction, I must follow them, for I am their blogger.

And maybe, together, we'll find a better word than "blog."