thinking blogs

The motto at the top of my blog has become something of a professional mantra for me. My goal here on the Active Voice blog (and by extension through all my writing and editing work) is to address issues that are of concern to readers and writers — whether practical, technical, philosophical, or whimsical.

Writer, certified creativity coach, and journal writing teacher Quinn McDonald, a regular here on the AV blog, has tagged me with a Thinking Blogger Award, a meme started earlier this year by ilker yoldas. Quinn described me as “the thinking person’s writer.”

(*Blush*) Thanks, Quinn! Coming as it does from the thinking person’s coach, that means a lot!

To fulfill my obligations as an awardee, and to help pass on its spirit, I must name name five blogs that I, too, find to be interesting, informative, and helpful. Here are five blogs that make me think:

• Paul Conley’s blog, which is aimed at “those who toil in the most specialized, and perhaps the least glamorous, area in the press — trade journalism.” Conley is becoming something of a conscience for the field and, when called for, he is one of its most provocative gadflies too. A must-read for professional writers regardless of specialty.
• How I Published My Own Books, Michael LaLumiere’s real-time account of lessons learned on the long, hard road to self-publishing success. Michael’s insightful comments about his successes and setbacks, and his ongoing battle with that familiar nagging demon of self-doubt, is both sympathetic and inspiring.
• if:book, a project of the Institute for the Future of the Book. Should anyone ever succeed in inventing Book 2.0, this is where you’ll hear about it first. This blog’s beat is the frontier of reading technologies. I sometimes disagree with their assumptions and conclusions, but where would the fun be in agreeing all the time? Reasonable disagreement is an essential prerogative of the thinking person.
• Freedom to Tinker, the fearless blog of Ed Felten and J. Alex Halderman, respectively professor and graduate student in Computer Science at Princeton University. FTT is all about issues related to the legal regulation of technology, a subject of increasing significance to writers. Their analyses of everything from voting machines to the iPhone are not only trenchant and timely, but also superbly clear.
• wood’s lot, or “the fitful tracing of a portal.” A magnificent, sprawling panoply of visual art, poetry, essays, musings, ramblings, and more as found on the Web by Mark Woods. Underneath the apparent jumble can be discerned a subtle stream-of-consciousness arrangement that reveals the work of a sensitive and intelligent thinker.

Tag, you’re it! To my awardees: thanks for being an essential part of my life. To my readers: consider making them part of yours, too.

Here are the participation rules for the Thinking Blogger Award:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think
2. Link to the original post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn’t fit your blog).