Something Authory

‘You know what would be great?’ my editor said.  “More authory posts on your blog.’

This conversation happened by telephone, so she couldn’t see the look on my face at this idea, but I suspect she got the gist.  I have ongoing debates with my editors about the nature of this blog. I have never, despite their best efforts, considered it a marketting tool, since I firmly believe that the fictions of my life are far more interesting than the facts.  In fact, when initially coming up with Kate Griffin as my authorial name, I was seriously tempted to create a whole life story for this pseudonym, hopefully involving Antarctic rescue missions and encounters with exotic cults.  As it was, the rather more banal truth got in the way of what I personally feel, would have been the literary biography of a lifetime.  But back to being authory.

I am a terrible author.  I should hasten to add, I hope that I’m an okay writer!  I love the actual putting of words on the page, the thrill of a good tale, the feeling of language and the things that can be done with all of the above; but I suck, absolutely suck, at smiling for the camera or explaining how a cracking yarn is, in fact, a post-modern reflection on the issue of the day.  It may be so… but first of all, and with any luck, it was a brilliant story.

So when I receive the command to ‘be more authory’, I admit, I struggle.  The day to day details of my life are nothing if not varied and occasionally conflicting.  Today I was Kate Griffin for a few minutes in London Waterstones, where by accident I discovered they had tonnes of Kate Griffin stock and it seemed like a good idea to sign it.  A lady with exceptional loyalty to her birthday-imminent friend chatted to me over the desk – it was her initiative that I was in this Waterstones at all – and in a moment of horror I realised that I was committing the ultimate sin of being a fantasy author despite having left my black leather jacket at home.

But no sooner was all this signed than it was down to the theatre to discover a projector out of line, and into the harness and back to my traditional role of Cat, the girl who needs to check the MIDI triggers.  People in theatre don’t believe that I’m a writer; people who know that I am a writer can’t understand what I’m doing in theatre and thus these two worlds never collide and that’s probably a good thing.  It does, however, make it hard to cultivate a truly authorial persona, since I end up almost never talking about my writing work and thus don’t really know what to say.

So!  While I try to address questions raised on this blog in my own, slow, stumbling way, it occurs to me that I might as well throw open the question of what the hell ‘authory’ is and, more precisely, if anyone has any questions or queries which they figure merit a blog entry, of a specifically authory nature, then please do tell me!  All thoughts appreciated!