Jessica Seinfeld and Me

Keith Raffel here.

Norman Mailer, who died this week, aimed to write the Great American Novel. When I’m writing, nothing could be further from my mind. I want to write a book that can be enjoyed on a beach chair or airplane seat. A major thrill comes when people say they read my Dot Dead: A Silicon Valley Mystery at one sitting because they couldn’t put it down. One friend sent me an email whose subject line was “Damn You.” Apparently, she’d started reading the book just before bedtime and stayed up till three or four in the morning to finish it. The result was a bad day at work. Forgive me, but I loved it.

Of course, a second reason to put my ass in a chair and rap away at the keys is the cash. Despite the psychic satisfactions mentioned above, this author gig – well, it’s a business. As Dr. Johnson said, "No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money."

Have you read about the Jessica Seinfeld’s new cookbook, Deceptively Delicious? She explains how to slip vegetables into kids’ meals without them noticing. You know, some puréed cauliflower in the mac and cheese or sweet potatoes in the pancakes. Well, I try to sneak some good-for-you “vegetables” in what I write, too.

When Dot Dead starts, the hero is obsessed by making tens of millions from those stock options he's been granted by the start-up where he works. After all, who are the avatars of Silicon Valley if not the billionaire entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs or Larry Ellison? In the course of the narrative, I try to “slip in” the notion that pursuing justice, belonging to a community, and establishing a loving relationship just might also be goals worth striving for. Now, I explained all this to one bright friend and she said, “I loved the book, but I didn’t notice.” Perfect! She probably wouldn’t notice zucchini in her oatmeal either.

What subversive messages do you put in your books or do you notice other writers putting in theirs?

Blogito, Ergo Sum

Why do we blog?

Let me tell you why that question has been rolling around the inside of my skull. Tuesday night I went to the Giants game to see Barry Bonds hit a home run or two. A failed mission. But between innings, the scoreboard had a quiz. Who is first baseman Ryan Klesko's favorite actor: A) Tom Hanks, B) Mel Gibson, or C) Jim Carrey? Then on came a video of Mr. Klesko in which he declared for B. The entire episode was sponsored by Hebrew National Kosher Hot Dogs. That seemed a little incongruous to me, given MG's anti-semitic rant of last year. So I blogged about it over at Dot Dead Diary.

Thanks to some instigation from my godson, defamer.com and deadlinehollywooddaily.com linked to my posting. Holy mackerel! I had more hits on my blog Thursday than I typically get in a month. Thousands.

But so what? Did it mean I was selling more books? I don’t think so, at least there was no effect on my Amazon ranking. So I started to wonder whether my more typical postings did anything for sales. Do I myself buy the books of the bloggers I read every day? Yes, but largely because they are friends whose books I’d buy anyway, not because they blog.

If blogging doesn’t lead to more sales, then why blog? As Dr. Johnson once famously said, "No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money."

Maybe we blog because it’s a way to keep in touch. When I lived in England years ago, I corresponded with friends via airmail. Blogging gives me the same kind of feeling of keeping in touch, but it’s more efficient since one posting goes to everyone I’d write to.

Or maybe we blog because writing is a solitary vocation (except for Joe and Lynn) and this is our way of crying out, “Hey out there. We're alive.” Descartes wrote, “Cogito, ergo sum,” or “I think, therefore I am.” Maybe we’re saying “Blogito, ergo sum” or “I blog, therefore I am.”

I’d like to know why my fellow bloggers blog. And I’d like to hear from readers what they get out of this blog or the individual blogs of any of us Inksters. Finally, if any reader has bought a book – even one – because of the witty prose that shows up here five days a week, please let us know via a comment.