So, there seems to be confusion about my story in LCRW. Specifically, my name. I chose to use my middle name and first initial (M. Brock Moorer) because I wanted the gender of the 1st person narrator to remain ambiguous for reasons that had everything to do with the story. The funny thing is, the few sites that refer to or review the story immediately assumed that I was male. I’m not sure whether I should be offended or amused. Or both.

Mr. Moorer?! That’s Dr. Moorer to you!

Although this choice had a lot to do with this specific story, it also has to do with a particular prejudice of mine against writers who write in the first person using photos of themselves on book jackets. Okay, not specifically the photo, but the entire cult of author that erodes the identities of characters. Yes, I realize that this is often not a choice the author gets to make, but I don’t really care. I can’t help but associate the writer’s identity with the narrator and it takes a great deal of work to not very successfully remove that image of the author from the character. I need brain bleach. Although a name is a lot less to overcome, it still tends to nail down the gender of the writer almost immediately. So, yeah. If I could erase myself completely from the final ‘product’ I would. But this is a business and apparently it matters who wrote it. And more important, it’s necessary for me to point at certain stories and say, “I wrote that!” Because that’s how you become A Writer (TM). Switching names from story to story is about as much as I can do to screw with this process of ownership. Because, the prince pwns that story anyway.