Pulling Off the Helmet

OK, it looks like there will be some changes around here, and mulling over them, as well as getting ready to make them, will probably mean an extra day or two before I get to regular posting (i.e. more installments of the novel and making occasional spiritual/political observations).

Why? Because it looks like I’m about to “unmask” myself, and I have to consider the ways in which this blog will change (probably minor ones overall) and how I will use it in my life (which might be the bigger change).

For a long time, I have zealously guarded my anonymity here, and let only a handful of people outside immediate family and longtime friends know anything about who Deacon Blue really is.

I have done so in part because being new to blogging when I started this thing, I wasn’t certain if it was “safe” to let this information be known. I wasn’t sure if my subject matter and approach to it might attract violent people to threaten me. Sure, that might seem as melodramatic to you as it does to me now in hindsight, but I didn’t recall seeing any other foul-mouthed, opinionated deacons blogging, so I wasn’t sure, and my family’s safety comes first.

Also, as freelance writer and editor, I’ve been worried that my opinions here might turn people off from giving me work. Would my religious beliefs be a turn-off? Would people look at my attitudes and opinions here and decide I couldn’t be a proper “impartial” journalist? But it has also become clear that the economy has been my biggest enemy in terms of me losing clients and failing to replace them. That, and the whole nature of the new media. In short, the world has changed thanks to social media, the Internet, blogs and everything else digital out there that we now rely on. I can’t worry that this blog might lose me business; I have to find ways that it can help me become more marketable and employable.

I have to adapt, or I have to find a new career. So I am going the embrace the new media and try to figure out how to make it work better for me. That means making better use of Facebook and LinkedIn. That means joining Twitter, which is something I swore I’d never do. That means finding ways both to promote myself online and to find work through various online media.

That also means it’s time for me to be more complete and honest about who I am. It’s something I already have begun to realize, and a recent post by Chez over at Deus Ex Malcontent, along with long talks with my wife about my future, have pretty much pushed me over the edge on this.

I can keep hovering way back from the edge of the cliff, or I can get close enough to catch a nice view. And, if I’m daring enough and smart enough, maybe I can make some impressive dives into the water below and make a name for myself.

Who the hell knows?

In any case, you’ll be finding out who I am very soon. Not that my name or face will be anything special unless you happened to go to school with me, worked with me or are related to me. I will still be “Deacon Blue” here, but at the same time, my birth name, my background, and my life will be a more open book, and easily accessible from the sidebar sometime within the next day or two.

So, you’ve been wondering what I look like and who I am? Well, it won’t happen right away, because the helmet’s been on a while, but let me work at the catches on this helmet a bit…