News Release

Jan Eliot on Blogging

Kansas City, MO  (05/13/2009)  Jan Eliot of “Stone Soup” was recently asked by an interviewer to give her opinion about blogging. Eliot’s blog can be found at: http://www.stonesoupcartoons.com/ and features this past weekend’s photos of the Habitat for Humanity's Women Build program in Silverton, Oregon.

The interview with Eliot by Sarah Wagner, a UT Austin student and writer for Viz, can be found at: http://viz.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/378

VIZ: Several cartoonists, including you, have blogs. Some post at least daily and some post just once in a while. Why did you start your blog and what's your general approach to it?

JE: I did the blog to have something different on the website. I have to be careful, I'm a blurter. I post when I'm in the mood... I find that it can be a "time suck" to be online too much. Nothing wrong with it, but I prefer being outdoors, drinking beer on a terrace, traveling to fun places... LIFE!

That said, it's a pleasure to communicate with readers. If they are polite. The blogosphere is a blustery, rude place. Email is too anonymous. People forget to be civil. So I limit my exposure.

VIZ: Also related to blogging—how do you balance doing that and doing your daily strip? Do they feed off of each other?

JE: I don't find the blog, or email, or being online, nourishing. It's PR, really, fun but draining. Book signings, events where I get to meet with readers, are nourishing. Online activities interfere with deadlines, and sometimes you lose hours doing what "feels" like work, but actually isn't. I enjoy having some presence online, and I want readers to know about my strip, but I have to protect my silent time to be creative. I often don't turn on my computer at all on writing days... and most days I avoid turning it on until the afternoon. I need to protect the mornings for creative thought.

Being online doesn't give me ideas. Daydreaming does. Walking through a store and eavesdropping on conversations does... reading the paper does... sketching does... but mostly, daydreaming is the creative engine.

Creator(s): Jan Eliot

Contact(s): Kathie Kerr

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