By Seumas Gallacher
…when this ol’ Jurassic was at infant school along with Methuselah and Co., primary sources of reading amusement were the comic cuts… in the UK, these included ‘the Dandy’, ‘the Beano’, and ‘the Topper’…
…and unforgettably, the characters populated within their covers ranged from Dennis the Menace, Beryl the Peril, Desperate Dan, and the Bash Street Kids… as role models for modern-day children, I s’pose they would be frowned on, as the naughtier their exploits, the funnier, and therefore more interesting to us wee readers, they became… but survive they all did, week after week, scrape after scrape, mischief after mischief… now here’s the thing… much as their behaviour may have pulled a tut-tut or three from their comic long-suffering parents and exasperated schoolmasters, NUTHIN they did was too outrageous… they were fun, entertaining, and truth be known, they provided another means of adding to our junior propensity to read…
…the authors of these evergreen cartoon characters and stories knew the limits of propriety… I think there’s a strong pointer there, for me at least, as to what is ‘appropriate’ content in my own scribblings here in my blog… as an Author, my novels hopefully will carry my ‘Author’s Voice’, a recognisable pattern and style of writing… but, the Blog, for me, is the vehicle that carries my ‘Author’s Brand’… how readers perceive the person behind the quill-scraping… of course, it will never replace face-to-face, frequent interaction with people… but, y’know, Mabel, maybe that’s not such a bad thing… among the fabulous friendships I’ve been fortunate enuff to garner across the SOSYAL NETWURKS, I have impressions in my own head of the personalities with whom I engage online regularly… and unlike non-virtual relationships, if I feel disinclined to continue to engage because of ‘bad vibes’, a simple click of the mouse solves the issue… which reinforces for me that I have to take care to protect my own Author’s Brand… by not indulging tasteless Author Blog behaviour… ‘not in my back yard’ kinda stuff… I’d be interested to hear if yeez Lads and Lassies of Blog Land out there share this view?… are yeez conscious of yer own Author’s Brand?… see yeez later… LUV YEEZ!…
