I posted my blog earlier and went about my day, going to writing group, thinking about the lunch I had with a friend from out of town, etc.  I grew up with this friend.  I remember stories my mom used to tell me about adventures with her and her best childhood friend, "Bunny".  Well, this girl is my "Bunny".  Meaning she was my best friend in school, we always manage to spend some time together when she comes to town, and we know each other pretty well, despite the changes and challenges we've gone through in adulthood.

She read part of my short story "Tiger's Eye View" from Barren Worlds, published by Hadley Rille Books.  "I can tell that's you!  That sounds like something you'd say!"  She commented.  I think she meant it as a complement, but in thinking, I've begun to wonder.  I thought invisibility was the goal of the writer.  What was expected of children a hundred years ago (and even today in some families)? Seen, not heard?  Isn't that supposed to be my goal?  To write a story that grabs the reader and makes them forget who they are reading?

Is being invisible a constant goal?  Or do some authors get off the hook due to their long standing careers?  I ask, because one author in particular is no longer invisible to me.  I've been reading his work since I was eleven, and his literary style hasn't changed much in the past twenty years or so.  So when he puts a certain phrase in one of his books that is similar to something in another of his books, the invisibility cloak is gone, disabled.  I know instantly who I'm reading, and the spell of the story is broken.

How successful can a writer be at invisibility?  Is it too much to expect to have friends and family not know it's you when you hand them that story to read?  Is anonymity only achieved with strangers?  Does fame and fortune give you a hall pass on that skill?  Do you get a freebie when you reach a certain stage in your writing career, when everyone knows what you write and demands more?  When hiding behind the story is no longer possible, what becomes the new goal of an author?

I write because the ideas in my head will explode if I don't get them out.  The secondary goal is to entertain, possibly educate.  And if I get rich and famous along the way, that's okay, too.  It's a trade off, I suppose.  Writing for popularity may pay the bills and get you recognition, but when the author eclipses the story, then the story, and the reader, lose.

Okay, going to sleep now.