“Words, the profits of a quarter-hour wrenched from the charred tree of language, between the good mornings and the good nights, doors that enter and exit and enter on a corridor that goes from noplace to nowhere.” Octavio Paz, Toward the Poem

For the Write Reason began as a column I wrote for my college newspaper. I’m not a journalist, but I wanted to prove to myself that I could write on deadline. I surprised myself by enjoying the column and missing it when it was gone.

And I figured that the internet needed easier access to my thoughts on daytime TV, basketball, writing, Billy Joel, Joan Didion, the Indigo Girls, and all manner of lesbian-themed pop culture. Thus, For the Write Reason came to Livejournal, moved to Blogspot, and ended up at WordPress.

I don’t use this blog to expose my secrets or the secrets of my nearest and dearest. Mostly, I talk about nothing. I’ve said before that I’m not clever enough to blog anonymously. Most of my readers know me personally, and I’m just not interesting enough to stalk.

I use real names. My real name is Katie, and my husband’s real name is Andy. Our dead cat’s real name is Sachen, and our new cat’s real name is Sebastian. We really live in Fort Wayne. My sister’s real name is Bethany. Jennifer Beals’s real name is Jennifer Beals. I post too many pictures of myself to be anonymous, anyway.

I have two BAs, one in English and one in women’s studies, and one reality-avoiding MA, again in English. I write and the blog nurtures that. I am teaching women’s studies and composition at various institutions around Fort Wayne while I figure out what the next step will be.

When I’m asked to explain the allure of blogging, I turn to Joan Didion. As usual, she says it better than I ever could in her essay “On Keeping a Notebook” from Slouching Towards Bethlehem:

“The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidentally, only secondarily, in the way that any compulsion tries to justify itself.”

I suppose this blog is my notebook.