BLOGGER BASH - Are We Authors or Simply, Babbling Typists???

I won't mention the mainstream news channel I found this topic... but it's not one I haven't heard before, which is, that bloggers aren't authors, journalists, or artistic. The article I read today said we're "typists".

TYPISTS???

Whew... yeah, I'm sitting here with nothing better to do than type words in the cloud, and expect that there's any intelligent mind behind them. Call me sensitive, as a matter of fact I am, sensitive. Reminds me that day in my early 20's when I happily announced to my parents, "I'm a writer". Their response? They laughed, my mother cried, and they pointed out - "you're not a writer".

Thanks, for that Reality Check!

A little history on how I got to be the blogger I am today.

Not only did I seriously take up creative writing in the mid 70's, but have always been an avid reader, researcher, and for years was in the thick of the society of my peers. That's called experience. In the early 90's I got into computers, and by the mid-90's put together my own website using HTML, not a web designer program. The site was quite popular. I had it going approx. 3 years when i had to abandon it since I was moving and couldn't take it with me. There are ways, but they eluded me at the time.

For a few years after that I was too busy with other responsibilities to pursue another website, though I wanted to. Instead, I focused more on computers, technology, more reading, and a concentration on the web, brandy new to the human race, and set to change who we are forever.

In late 2004 I got involved in a missing person case, Brianna Maitland from VT. I became close with the family and the case. The family had a forum and I wrote often on the forum. I wrote a "pinned topic" - the family posted, detailing the events prior to and after Brianna's disappearance. This in addition to working closely with family and friends assisting in searches and interviewing friends of Brianna's.

I have assisted in other cases, and if too far away, gotten involved writing for those forums also.

Around 2007, Brianna's case went "cold", and the family took down the forum, as forums are very difficult to maintain. Their's was plagued by hackers, and malicious intrusions, among numerous technical issues.

In 2009, doing a routine Google search about Brianna, wondering if there was anything new, I stumbled upon Slam Dunk's Blog, and his already extensive postings on Brianna's case. His link is available here: http://theslamdunktrove.blogspot.com/

I offered my assistance, described my experience, and found myself writing some 13-14 new posts on her case myself, or in conjunction with Slam Dunks.

Beginning last October, I began my own blog... and though it's sometimes a bit "rough around the edges", I find hope and satisfaction in writing on my blog and pursuing those issues that mean a lot to me. I leave the "missing person's" blogging to Slam Dunk, as he has expertise in that area. I have other interests I like to pursue also... but to suggest I'm simply a TYPIST? What's next... Blogging as a "controlled substance"? State laws banning bloggers? Permits to blog? Psychological evaluations of bloggers? Questions on job applications: "Have you ever been a blogger?"

What's to a blog - just words randomly written to a cloud?

Hardly.