From birth until kindergarten I was Maggie — Maggie being the closest real name to Mei+Gil, my parents’ names, and deemed more appropriate for a baby than Kristan. (Thank you for not naming me Magel!)

When I started elementary school, I decided a big girl needed a big girl name, so I politely requested (read: brattily insisted) that everyone start using my real name. Then for about two weeks after Disney’s Beauty and the Beast came out, I insisted on being called Belle. Needless to say, that didn’t stick.

In high school I became Hoffy. I also received my first and only relationship nicknames, none of which I will inflict upon your innocent ears.

Finally, in college I was dubbed Stan, and I hated it. (Why couldn’t I be Kris? I love the nickname Kris!) I resisted Stan for a long long time — like, at least a month — until finally a friend was talking about a stand-up comedian, and I turned and said, “Huh? Me?”

-_-

Now I love Stan, and actually that’s what my boyfriend (who I met in college) calls me as if it were my real name. To him it is!

I also love when friends tell me they met someone named Stan (usually 40-year-old car salesmen or such) and thought for a minute, “Man, that poor guy has a girl’s name!”

When people ask me what I like to be called, I never really know how to answer. I still get Maggie, Kristan, Hoffy, and Stan — and Pantsface, don’t ask — and I love each of them for different reasons.

So really, what’s in a name? More importantly, what’s in your name? Where’d it come from? Do you like it, hate it, plan to change it? (You can also answer about your online name, if you don’t go by your real one.)

Note: This is a thinly veiled link dump. :P

I’ll be honest, I have no idea who Polly Frost is, but her tongue-in-cheek piece at the Atlantic made me laugh. From “Reblock Yourself the Polly Frost Way!”:

Everywhere on the web I found writers expressing themselves.

I was swept up in the exhilaration. I ran multiple WordPress blogs. I dashed off rants about the New York City book publishing world, sharing them on Scribd as downloadable PDFs. My “What I Ate for Lunch” Tumblr photoblog earned consistently high rankings on Technorati. Fame came to me as well as one of the most prolific photo commenters at Flickr.

But after a year of madness and intoxication I took an honest look at myself. I took an honest look around me. And I didn’t like what I saw.

There was too much writing. And it was everywhere.

Exactly. And this is why I always shoot myself down when I get the idea for some great new domain name that I could launch into the next Dooce!

Next, for those of us in the throes of revision, writer Karen Outen has some useful insight via her engineer friend. From “How I learned to love revision”:

He told me that in any project, once he hits the thing that won’t work as he imagined, the question then becomes, how will he get what he wants anyway?

His answer clicked with me immediately, and I said, “That’s revision!”

She makes it sound so fun, no?

Later, when I’m not in the throes of revision, I may have to give some of Bruce McAllister’s writing exercises a try. From “About Writing” (which is a terrible title for a good little piece about things writers can do to strengthen their writing):

Hemingway’s favorite exercise—which was to take a favorite scene from another writer’s novel, try to recreate it in words as close as possible to the original, and compare the two versions. Every writer I’ve ever known who’s tried this has been blown away by it. You learn instantly, among many other things, whether you’re an underwriter or overwriter, a visual writer or an audial one, and have an ear for dialogue or prefer summarizing speech.

I also love how McAllister lambastes the idea of writers avoiding reading because they don’t want to “corrupt” their own original voices. Um, it’s called apprenticeship, and it’s the best way to learn anything.

Finally, 10 “easy” steps to becoming a better writer, via copyblogger. It’s a short, funny post, so no quoting.

Me: Do you think it matters if I use your shampoo and body wash for a while?
Andy: No. Well, you’ll smell like a boy.
Me: True, but no one smells me.
Andy: I smell you!
Me: So? I’ll still smell like a nice, clean boy.
Andy: I don’t want to smell a boy in my bed, no matter how nice or clean he is…

UPDATE: HARMONY WAS ADOPTED! Thanks, everyone! And if you were the one who adopted her, just know that I’d love to reunite Riley and Harmony for a playdate or something. Leave a comment or contact me via the link on the left.

# # #

Okay, I’m gonna tell you a little secret, but you have to promise not to tell Riley. Promise? Good. Here it is: When we first saw pictures of Riley’s litter, I thought his sister Harmony was the cutest. Shhh!

Fortunately, she was already on hold when I called the shelter, meaning only Riley (called Hasbro at the time) and his brother Hellmans were available for adoption. We went to visit them, and really all three were darling, but we knew Riley was meant for us when he gnawed on my shoe and then on Andy’s watch. (Yes, watch.)

We couldn’t be happier, of course, but last week I learned some sad news: Harmony (and her housemate Buzz) were returned to the League for Animal Welfare due to economic circumstances. LFAW is a wonderful no-kill shelter, so she’s not in any immediate danger, but it breaks my heart to see her back there instead of in a nice home with a loving family.

If you are in the Cincinnati area and have the time/energy/financial capability, please consider adopting Harmony. Based on our experiences with Riley, I can tell you that their mix is very friendly, loyal, and intelligent. She’ll need a good amount of playtime or exercise, but she’s only 20-ish pounds so apartment living (like us) is very possible. You can read more about her at the LFAW Web site.

There are a number of other equally deserving dogs and cats there, so even if Harmony is not right for you, I encourage you to check out other options. And if you ARE interested in Harmony, let me know! I’d be happy to answer more questions about her (based on Riley) and/or meet up with you and Harmony post-adoption.

This post by fellow aspiring writer Jill Wheeler CRACKS. ME. UP!

(And also makes me cry a little bit on the inside, because it’s so, so true.)

It just kills me when I tell people about my novel and the first thing they ask is, “Are you going to get it published?”

Pshah! Yeah, I’m going to give it to the publishing fairies, who will toss it in a machine that will produce millions of copies (with a breathtaking cover and a picture of me, fifty pounds lighter, on the back). Then the fairies will deliver my books to every Barnes and Noble, Borders, and independent book store in the nation. THEN, like a week later, I’ll get a check for six million dollars in the mail, and my husband and I will be able to pay back our student loans and retire.

*grumble*

Off to edit.