Let me start out by saying, I have never blogged before. For years I have toyed with the idea of writing some kind of blog. Over ten years ago, I was close to starting a blog for girls who game, but I never did. I guess I really never felt I had a lot to say on one topic. For me, great blogs have a theme. They are more than just journal entries about life. They have a focus and take the reader on a journey through that topic of exploration.
Last night, I was sitting with my husband and was filling him in on the day's writing. He hasn't read one page of my novel and I haven't told him anything really meaty about the story, but I do talk about my struggles with the craft of writing. He asked why I hadn't started a blog yet. I had to admit, it was a good subject for a blog. Every day I discover something new. Every day I seem to have a new challenge. I have had several friends who find the process of what I have undertaken interesting. And frankly, it seems to clear my brain of the clutter when I talk about the craft of writing.
I have written for years - short stories, poetry, journals, academic papers - but never something as long and involved as a novel. And it isn't even just a single book. I am writing the first in a series and the first story arc will span at least five books. Yes, I am a bit ambitious, but this is a story that has been brewing in my mind for about twenty years. It has to be written. It wants to be written. So it will be, hurdles and all.
So what is with the title?
This is not the first novel I have written. Oh no! Many years ago when I was just a wee lass I wrote a novel with my very good friends. We were twelve, I think, and the year was 1984. In our novel, we were a girl band called, Technical Difficulties (our first album entitled Please Stand By), and we opened for a little band you may have heard of called Duran Duran. In the novel, we all proceeded to meet and have affairs with all the band members. /sigh Ahh youth!
In the first chapter, John Taylor was "perched on a barstool." We were very proud of that line and it has stayed with me all these years later. My good friend, Elicia, and I still laugh about it today. My blog's title is a tribute to that first auspicious attempt at writing. Plus, to be perched on a barstool seems to be a bit of a precarious position. You aren't quite stable and at any point you are poised to leap off. I feel that way about writing frequently. Also, writers are observers. You can learn a lot about human nature simply perched on a barstool watching the world go by.
