Some of you already know this, but when I was in my late teens I was pseudo-famous online. (I say pseudo because these days, you're not famous unless you're at dooce status and back then most people didn't know what a blog was.) I wrote fan fiction about teen idols, namely The Moffatts, *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, and a little bit of Hanson - and I had quite a readership. I got between 75-100 emails a day and even had some overzealous fans stalking me on AIM.

Here is an example of a conversation I might have with such a fan:

Fan: Karel??
Me: Yes?
Fan: OMG it's really you! Wow. I love [insert name of story].
Me: Aw, thanks!
Fan: I can't believe I'm really talking to you!
Me: Well, believe it, sista. I'm just a normal 17-year-old dork like you.

What I couldn't believe was that people actually felt honored to be talking to me - after all, at age 17 I was an overweight, shy, awkward and somewhat depressed teenager who was dealing with her older brother's sexuality through writing it into fan fiction. But I appreciated every word and every email that I received. I wish I had saved them, but alas, I lacked that foresight when themoffatts.com stopped offering email service and my account was terminated. (True story. My email address was evermisery@themoffatts.com. DEPRESSING, no?)

Since then, my online readership has diminished considerably - I don't particularly mind, as I'm happy that there are people, period, who are interested enough in my life to tune in on a regular or semi-regular basis. Being part of the online fan fiction community was exciting in some ways, yet also somewhat invasive (people stole my writing more than a few times) and distracting from the goings-on of my physical, daily life. I've always been and will continue to be flattered, however, that I did have that presence, and that my writing was powerful enough to draw in such an audience, regardless of my subject matter.

Which is why it irritates me that there are some very popular, widely-read blogs (which shall remain nameless) whose authors tirelessly proclaim that they are boring, mundane, and terrible writers. I can understand wanting to remain humble and modest, but to maintain a blog, in which you write about your life, and receive comments that number in the hundreds daily, and insist that you are a terrible writer, is an insult to both your readers and your blogging peers. Whether or not these bloggers have intended to be good writers or ever felt that they had a talent in written word, they do. And they enjoy a readership and acceptance in the literary community that others may only hope for. To do anything less than acknowledge and appreciate it is in fact a form of passive arrogance that I have little tolerance for.

But I still read their blogs. Why? Because they're good writers. I just wish they would own up to it and stop pretending they don't know how talented they are.