Robin Layne's Blog: From the Red, Read Robin - Posts Tagged "robin"

What should I Name this Blog?

I started brainstorming titles, and came up with a veritable kaleidoscope of them! I thought I’d throw them out here because they show various facets of myself, my interests, aims, and writings. I might come up with more in time, but for now, I welcome thoughts on these—or combinations of them. You can see I’ve already eliminated some of these, but I hope that seeing why is informative and entertaining. I plan to write on subjects for book lovers and writers alike.

Red Robin’s Bloggin’—could mean either the process of blogging or the fact that Robin is blogging. The color red has significance to me on a number of levels. Downside: could be confused with the restaurant. (How do you trademark a color and a bird? But they did.) Also sounds like “noggin,” and that’s where these thoughts come from.

Red Robin Bloggin’—rhymes, and so is more poetic than the former idea. Still could be confused with the restaurant.

Red Robin’s Bloggin’ Toboggan—a wild ride, to be sure.

Robin’s Red Blog—reminds me of the Portland Red Book, but it’s not a very similar name.

The Little Red Blog—sounds like a children’s book blog—not appropriate for most of what I will talk about.

Robin’s Big Red Blog—possible.

Little Red Robin Hood—now that’s a mixture of tales!

Little Red Bloggin’ Hood—too cutesy, I think.

Robin’s Blood-red Blog—this is okay, although it reminds me of “The Blood-red Pencil” (a writing website). But I like “blood-red.”

Robin’s Blood-read Blog—a little cleverness thrown in for readers with eyes sharp enough to see it, and would be especially appropriate when my book comes out.

Blog Blog Bloggin’ Along—a play on my name but nothing more.

A Walk Down Robin La(y)ne—another play on my name, but what does it mean to walk down me? No, I think not.

Robin’s Song—lame, unoriginal.

Herald of the Eternal Spring—this is a name for my spiritual identity and purpose, and also sounds like the name of a newspaper, perhaps. But I don’t know that people would connect a blog with a newspaper. A robin is a herald of the spring; I am a herald of the spring of Christ’s blood and God’s Spirit, and of the eternal spring they will bring.

My Night-blooming Series—a blog is a series of posts, and my books are expected to be a series as well. I usually bloom at night, like the night blooming cereus flower (pronounced “series”), and in the morning feel wilted and half-dead. I also might still have some graphics from my old web domain picturing a red-toned night-blooming cereus. . . . Just checked all over the computer. Nope; I don’t have the picture, except for part of it with “Robin’s Nest” written on it. But anyway, I wrote a poem in my younger days called “The Night-Blooming Cereus,” expressing the value of fleeting beauty and life. This poem will appear in the novel I’m working on, as written by one of the characters. And since my novel and its planned sequels concern vampires, the name is appropriate on that level as well. A discouraging thought is that people making the connection with the flower may think I misspelled its name.

I think I like this last name best, but I would like to sit on it a while. Still, I hope you have found this fun to read. What do you think?

Welcome to my blog!

A number of elements combined to convince me to call this blog "From the Red Read Robin." First, it was different from the other names because it came to me in the morning after "sleeping on" all the other ideas. Second, the one person to give me feedback on this site, my friend Dustin, preferred it; he likes the wordplay in it. Second, I wore all red Sunday and people complimented my appearance in the color all day long. That morning, in fact, a friend took my picture on the bus.
I made sure "Read" was in the middle so that there could be no confusion with the restaurant.

Red as representing blood is of interest to the passionate writer. I can't remember who said this, but it was something like this: It's easy to be a writer. All you have to do is sit at the typewriter, and bleed.

Red blood is of interest to followers of Christ as well, because he shed that blood for us, not just so we could be forgiven (that's just the beginning, a means to a much bigger end), but so that we could be God's intimate family forever and do the same works that He does, out of the same motives. That's a tall order--one worth reaching for.

Of course, red blood is the food of vampires, and I'm working on some vampire stories (including making improvements on the one I posted on my profile--but please be patient because I'm juggling a lot of responsibilities). I will write in this blog why I am interested in vampires as subject matter and what they mean to me and others.

Red is a color of energy, and I can always use more of that.

Red is also a common color of copyediting marks. I am furthering my training as an editor so I will have a career to support my habits, such as writing and breathing (and which of those two is more important, really? Hard to say!)

Please feel free to comment about this blog--whether any of it interests you so far, though it is just getting started, and what things you'd like to read about that I might be able to write.

I also would love to get feedback on the stories I posted. "Manuel Pascal" is being released in installments, and the first one is pretty short, but if you are anxious to read more, let me know. I will probably post more soon, anyway.

On my next blog post, I am thinking of saying more about the "Read" and maybe the "Robin" parts of the title. I could also give some info on future titles and ideas for posts. I hope this really takes off and gets interesting!

Cheers!
Robin