Virginia Woman Blogs; Receives No Comments

With all the interest in blogging and bloggers lately, we here at spindlewhorl decided it’s high time that we work up our own blogger profile.

Close at hand is blogger Leslie Spitz-Edson, 42. We caught up with her at her home, where she can often be found, sitting at her desk and wondering why she receives no comments on her blog, spindlewhorl.net.

“I just don’t get it,” she said, reflecting on possible reasons for the shunning of her blog by other cyberspace regulars.

“There’s nothing controversial on my blog. Nothing at all…well…I did once call the Soviet system a ‘purveyor of revenge on successful families and an instigator of rage, despair, murder and suicide,’” she reflected, referring to her review of The Reindeer People by Piers Vitebsky. “Sorry!” (Phone calls to Konstantin Chernenko were not returned.)

“But, honestly, there’s nothing offensive…uh…I did once review a novel by an author who once wrote a book with a lot of sex in it.” Spitz-Edson quickly pointed out, though, that the book she DID review, Jane Smiley’s The Greenlanders, has no sex in it. “Well, almost. There was one illegitimate birth. Oops!”

“There might be the odd musing about a 1000-year-old buried object, but nothing that would warrant concern about me or my soundness of mind,” she insisted. “But now that I think of it there was an awful lot of drinking on that television skit I mentioned…” What? Dinner for One?

Ms. Spitz-Edson says that she blogs mainly about her areas of interest. “I’m not trying to ride on anyone’s coattails here, or steal anyone’s thunder, or take the words out of anyone’s mouth or anything,” she insists. “Although I have to admit that Alicia Björnsdotter’s and Emma Reid’s Grovt och grant WAS already listed on another website...oh dear, I’m a bad, bad, woman!”

Recovering quickly, she added, “but really, of all the 10,600,000 Google-hits for “Jamestown”, my article is definitely the best!”

Talk about riding on coattails! Apologies to The Onion!

Comments

[Leslie]

Martin, thanks for the tips! You clearly know of what you speak!

[Martin Rundkvist]

Three ways to get more readers (and commenters):

1. Host popular blog carnivals.
2. Submit blog entries to popular blog carnivals.
3. Comment on high-traffic blogs, slyly including links to pertinent entries on your own blog.

Keep it up, ma'm!

[Leslie]

Thank you, Shanna! It's so nice to hear from you. If you do read one of the books, let me know how you like it!

[Shanna]

I, too, would like to praise "Weaving, War and Womanhood"... so well done, finely interwoven (no pun intended)and so nicely written...I enjoy the writing in this blog immensely. This is my first time here, I will be sure to come back for more! And now I have a couple new books to put on my list for reading---lovely.

[Tullan Spitz]

Dear fellow readers of the irresistible and irreplaceable "spindlewhorl" blog:

I have been meaning to post a comment since I began reading the blog. In the interest of full disclosure, the blogger, Ms. Leslie Spitz-Edson, is my sister. However, even if I did not know the blog's author, spindlewhorl would be one of my favorite spots online. Dear reader - spread the word!

My favorite blog entry is Weaving, War and Womanhood. This concise, thoughtful, well-written short essay, spiked with Spitz-Edson's signature curiosity and dash of humor, is a perfect example of how spindlewhorl unites past and present, ancient and modern. Subjects that may at first glance seem "academic" or esoteric, are, in this blogger's pen (or keypad...) made refreshingly relevant. Check out her take on literary characters such as Penelope, Madame Defarge...and on women's work in general.

Her other essays are also wonderful. Spindlewhorl is an oasis on the internet! Where else can one read of ancient Norse traditions, drinking songs, Al Gore's movie and climate change, women's work, music, Jamestown, and so much more?

A reader can only hope that Ms. Spitz-Edson keeps writing.

[Louis Spitz]

I enjoy this blog...vy well written thoughtful informed and intelligent...Keep it coming...