A friend asked whether I had mentioned them here, guessing correctly that the answer to that question was yes. I thought today would be a good time to clarify my personal policy on mentioning other people in my blog. Since I’m mostly writing about my life and writing, it is inevitable that I will talk about people I know or who stimulate my interest or curiosity in some way. That said, I have personal rules about how I do it.

• I avoid calling people out by name unless I know for sure that they will be ok with it. There are occasions where I’ve thanked people publicly for the help they provided to me after a project. So I may use names there, but otherwise I figure you want maximum deniability. “Carolyn who? Never heard of her.”
• If you are an academic who has helped me, I probably won’t use your name here to keep you safe from other people wanting your time. (If you’re fine being thanked publicly, let me know.) I will thank you in my books.
• I mention family members but I try to avoid embarrassing them. (Except my husband, who may sometimes be embarrassed. He knew what he was getting into by marrying me. He’s in the batter at this point.)
• If you are my only friend in a particular, easily-identified niche (race, religion, gender, sexual preference, etc.), I avoid identifying you through that.
• I avoid talking about medical issues, since that’s private. And that goes for both friends and family.
• Same with your sex life. No matter how fascinating I find you (and trust me, I find you fascinating) I won’t discuss that here.
• In general, I try to mention people in ways that they will find pleasing and non-embarrassing.

I delight in the diversity of my friends and am very lucky to have friends of all sorts of genders, religions, ethnicities, races, sexual preferences, political views, and ages. I try to be sensitive to their feelings. Sometimes I fail. If I do, let me know and I’ll do my best to fix it

Today’s Update

I’m very close to sending the Thule collection of short stories to my editor. My goal is Friday because I’d like to get my critique group’s perspective on the final two eddas. I’m finishing up chapter 4 in the time travel romance novel which will be where the Meet Cute happens. I’m so excited to see the sparks fly when my two protagonists finally meet.

I hope your life is going well and that all your publicity is good publicity. Be well, friends!