Wendy Atterberry and Sarah Hatter publish Awesome!, a site about cool shit. The pair also launched a book publishing concern in January, Misc. Books and Press. Their first release, The Very Best Weblog Writing Ever By Anyone Anywhere In The Whole Wide World, is now available for pre-order.
We were so sick of bad writing and boring weblogs getting so much attention, we started a publishing company with the intent to issue an anthology of the best weblog writing we could find. We wanted to bring all the attention back to people who deserved to be mentioned in the press but were overlooked because of the popularity of the status quo.
Sure enough, I’ve only heard of two of the authors–Claire Zulkey and Holly Burns. The others I need to discover.
The release of this book brings me back to a topic I’ve given a lot of thought to in recent months–writing styles and editorial directions on blogs, particularly my own. I generally practice what’s become known as cut and paste blogging. My posts here and on Adpulp tend to be more about what I’m reading, than what I’m writing. I point to things.
Because I have other outlets for my writing and writing is my job, I don’t often feel the need to stretch creatively in this space. I approach it more like note taking. My blog posts are a narrative archive that I can access later, for whatever reason. And I’m good with that, but when I read a literary blogger or professional journalist who does use her blog to stretch creatively, it gives me reason to pause.