I want to thank author, blogger, editor, and do-it-all Janice Lee for answering my questions. Check out her books and follow her on Twitter! I have a review of her 2013 novel, Damnation, in queue to be published Friday!
What did you want to be when you grew up?
I went through different phases: teacher, archaeologist (a la Indiana Jones), zoologist, doctor, spy, writer.
What was your least favorite class at any point in your education? Why?
PE in high school. It was so hierarchical and was just asking to create tiers of “winners” and “losers.” Mostly I just chilled with my friends and we pretended we were too cool to care.
What was the first blog post you ever wrote about?
I’ve never had a proper blog. Just my website and various articles around the web. Probably the earliest “blog” I kept up most regularly (though only for a short while) was for my web design company, and the post had to do with what went into building a good website.
Do you think blogging is meant for the blogger, the readers, or both? Why?
Definitely both. It’s cathartic, in a way, for the writer. The Poetics of Spaces series I’m working on right now at Entropy, for example, is really memoir and confession disguised as personal essay. And I’ve had several readers email or message me thanking me for various articles in the series, which is always really gratifying to be able to connect with people in that way.
Are you reading anything right now?
Many things simultaneously but also in between things. I just finished The Ants by Sawako Nakayasu. About to begin Slow Movies: Countering the Cinema of Action by Ira Jaffe.
Do you habitually follow any blogs?
I’m one of those people who feel the need to say informed and connected, so I actually follow almost 100 different blogs that I get in a feed, in all topics: literature, art, culture, film, science, technology, web design, etc. I mostly just skim the headlines each morning and focus more on a few. My favorite site right now is Entropy, not only because I’m an editor there, but because there’s really some rad stuff happening there.
Grab the Lapels 
[…] Check out Janice’s Meet the Writer feature HERE! […]
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Really interesting – thanks, both! And I couldn’t agree more that blogging is cathartic. That’s one of the things I really like about it.
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It almost seems strange to call Entropy a blog because it’s so big and busy! They have awesome article over there.
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I’m the opposite in that I won’t follow more blogs than I can engage with on an ongoing basis. Agree about PE though – why is it that schools oppose rankings for everything except sporting prowess.
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I didn’t think about it like that. We never learn the readings of individual students in academic performance unless they’re the running for valedictorian out the science bowl team, which gets almost zero recognition.
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I agree that blogging is both for the reader and the blogger. Often your readers are other bloggers! haha
I haven’t heard of the blog/site Entropy, so I’ll look it up because I love rad things.
Looking forward to your review of Damnation!
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Thanks so much, Naz. Entropy is an innovative site that looks at lit from all sorts of unusual angles.
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I try to only read the number of blogs that I can keep up with and comment on, as I love the engagement on my own ones.
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True! My husband is more like Janice Lee in that he flips through titles of various types of blogs and reads what interests. A lot of bigger blogs aren’t the kind that follow people back, so it’s a different sort of relationship.
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Lovely interview! Looking forward to the upcoming review 🙂
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Thank you!
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