Mercer Machine - Guest Post

(Reciprocal posts going on here. Over at SomethingStickyThisWayComes I have contributed a rant that will no doubt send Mercer's stats through the floor as his usual readers drop to said floor, narcoleptic with boredom. However I expect mine to shoot into triple figures thanks to my good buddy Mike's considered and considerate prose, presented here for your delectation... And like anyone cares about stats any more.) Here it goes.

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I first met Expat at the Sg Blogger's Convention. I remember he was holding a glass of wine, and I remember we were both quizzed by a Straits Times reporter, being the only two white guys there (as far as I can remember; it was a long time ago.

Since then many, many thousands of words have been blogged, and blogging itself has been replaced as the new hotness by facebooking and twittering. Expat has bemoaned the fact, and wondered often whether he should stop blogging and just be a twit(terer), or a booker of faces. To me, the medium is the message, and if all you have to say fits into 140 characters, then what you have to say could well be left unsaid.

My great friend Expat has also perpetually been not writing a novel for about as long as I have known him. Oh, he has bits and pieces written down and in his noggin, but the pace of production could be termed glacial. He occasionally has a fit of wailing/teeth gnashing, comparing his blogging output to the non-progressive progress on his literary opus. To which I would point out that I would rather read Expat at Large vs the Fraternity of Infinite Monkeys than the Diary of Samuel Pepys.

Now, you may be wondering why this whole 'guest blogger' thing. I could tell you that, in certain authorly circles, it has become fashionable to invite others to write a post on your blog, generally so that the writer is exposed to a new audience who will (hopefully) go out and buy said writer's works like a pack of rabid hyenas, but I'm not selling anything today, and many who read this blog are at least on a nodding acquaintance with my own anyway.

The reason I suggested we swap blogs for a day was simple: I wanted to thank my good friend for being a good friend, and to urge you Dear Readers to do the same. Our friend Expat lives something of a solipsistic life (though he maintains he still recognizes people as people and does not generally run screaming from the bulk of humanity), and it's nice once in a while to be reminded that there are other people out there who know you, who care about you, and who are appreciative of the fact of your existence and its intersections with theirs.

So please, do let our dear Mr P know this is so. It might cushion the blow of his having to move away from the office with the beautiful view he sees maybe three days a month :)


Mercer Machine.