What's In a Nom?

Last December, I published my first book, a collection of short stories called "(C)rock Stories: Million-Dollar Tales of Music, Mayhem and Immaturity." The fruit of 10 years of labor, the book was originally subtitled, "True Stories of Fake Things That May or May Not Have Happened." The 15 stories carry the unnamed narrator (AKA, me) from high school through his late 20's, as he discovers punk rock, goes to gritty clubs, fights off perverted street people, survives three Butthole Surfers gigs, fails with girls, fights with friends and learns that sometimes loving a band means hating who they are.

Click here to read a really nice review that one-time Billboard rock columnist Ed Ochs wrote of my book.

I have other books in the works. OK, when I say "works," I mean that I've worked on them, but not lately. One of the books is a novel about space aliens, government cover-ups, road trips, love and archeology. It has a companion soundtrack of original music. The whole project actually started out as a concept album, but I turned it into a novel nearly four years ago. And then figured I could handle both a book and an album. It's gonna be a while before it's done, but it will be done.

I also have two children's books "in the works."

When talking to a few parents at my daughter's preschool last month, including one who has a children's book in progress, I mentioned that I was writing a rhyming alphabet book for preschoolers. And the director of the school, who I've known for many years, said, "And you just published a book of short stories."

And one of the moms said, "Oh, cool. Is it for kids?"

No, I said, it's for grown-ups.

Herein lies my problem.

Do I write the children's books (I have a counting book "in the works" as well) under my own name? I would feel weird publishing under a pen name, but I don't want to confuse (or scare off) potential buyers of children's books who realize that I've written a collection of short stories filled with swears and adult situations.

I have no idea if a publisher would push me in that direction. "(C)rock Stories" is self-published, so it's not likely to sell many copies (under 100 to date after six months on the market), so maybe a publisher wouldn't care.

I've thought about using initials before my last name (D.J. Brigham), or using my mother's maiden name (David Bogert). Or something totally made up and unrelated to my name (Dagger McTavish). I know I'm putting the cart before the horse on this. I still have to finish the books and find somebody to publish them.

Any feedback from folks who've run into this problem, or know somebody who has, or who just want to toss out noms de plume just for fun, I'd love to hear from you.

I'm Here Now

Not long after my editor's job at Webnoize was vaporized by a tornado of bad management decisions, in November, 2001, I began renting the domain name DaveBrigham.com. I didn't do much with it at first, but I viewed the site as a place that would serve both as a personal blog and a space to promote my freelance writing career.

I took a little time around the 2001 holidays to just relax, and after the turn of the year, I began looking for a new job. I interviewed for a position at the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and was asked back for a second interview. I'd previously been a member at NEHGS and done quite a bit of research into the Brigham family, so I was excited at the prospect of joining the society.

I felt I was a bit overqualified, however, but thought it would be a good idea to do the second interview for practice, if nothing else. In the midst of this process, my wife, Beth, and I were discussing day care options for our first child, who was due in May. Among other things, we discussed the idea of my staying home with the baby after Beth went back to work in September of that year.

That sounded like a good challenge, and a great way to bond with my first child. So I declined the second interview, and decided I would try my hand at full-time child rearing. I had been doing some freelance work, and figured I would continue once the baby arrived.

Once I took over stay-at-home dad duties after Labor Day, I realized how difficult it was to mix freelance work with a baby's schedule of feeding, napping, activities, diaper changing, etc. I soon dropped out of the freelance business, although I dropped back in on occasion, writing CD reviews and conducting artist interviews (for free) for music web site Junkmedia (you can find a complete list of my writings for them here) and a few pieces for a newsletter published for members of the Society for Commercial Archeology.

Eventually, I realized that if I wasn't going to use DaveBrigham.com to promote a freelance career, I had to do something with the site. So I turned it into what I initially called a "non-blog" because I hated the term and wanted to pretend I was doing something better or different. But I wasn't.

I posted updates on life at Case de Brigahan, pictures of the kids, the occasional piece of fiction, random musings, streamable songs I recorded with my son, Owen and, my biggest undertaking, a multi-part retelling of a road trip I took with friends in 1988. I was faithful to the site for many years (I've lost track of how many, and the archive on the site isn't complete).

I enjoyed updating the site, and receiving feedback from friends and family. But I never liked the interface for publishing. Every time I updated the site, I would receive a message telling me that my browser (either Firefox or Safari) wasn't optimal, so I wouldn't be able to do all the magical things that PC users could. That was fine, I dealt with it.

But then Facebook came along, and I came to realize that it was much easier to post pictures there and just link to them on my blog. And then I started a blog called The Backside of America via Blogger, and really enjoyed how easy it was to set up a good-looking site, insert photos and links, tag items, receive feedback and separate out each posting.

So I came to the decision to let DaveBrigham.com lag, and start things anew here on Blogger.

What am I going to be doing here?

Glad you asked.

Look for the usual updates on life in general -- Owen's baseball games, Amelia's progress on riding her bike, subway trips with Owen, vacation pictures, etc.

I'll also be writing book reviews and linking writing-related posts to my page at Goodreads.com. Additionally, I'll post more music from my MegaChips project with Owen, and occasional videos.

The new and improved DaveTronik 2000 ("On the Cutting Edge of Last Century") will also serve as a marketing spot for my first book, "(C)rock Stories: Million-Dollar Tales of Music, Mayhem and Immaturity." I'll also update readers on other books in my pipeline.

So there ya go.