kidattypewriter

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Naming the Shameless

I have a piece published in Quadrant magazine this month, or rather, Tim Train has a review published in Quadrant. It's the name I use to sign off my rare pieces in print, though not the name I use here in the blogosphere.

The piece is a review of John Hyde Page's book The Education of a Young Liberal.

Maybe to make my name sound really impressive, and my authorial identity sound suitably authoritative, I should start using a triple-barrel name, like Msrs Hyde Page, above. Unfortunately, Tim Huw Train doesn't have quite the same ring to it. Huw? It sounds like the noise a drunken Welsh owl would make.

Alternatively, I guess I could get a few more middle-names, and I could end up like one of those authors without a last name preceded by several initials. C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, W. B. Yeats ...

Strictly speaking, I could even have initials that initial nothing. The 'S' in the name of Harry S . Truman didn't actually stand for anything. (Or maybe it stood for itself - I haven't quite worked that one out yet.) The advantage of this sort of name is that you can't ever really write it in lower case, unless you're a rude bastard willing to flout the rules of English grammar.

What do you think? T.H.H.H.H.H. Train? Or maybe I'll vary the syllables around a bit. T.H.U.R.B.E.R. Train, T.H.A.C.K.E.R.A.Y. Train, T.H.O.R.E.A.U. Train, T.H.O.M.A.S.C.O.M.M.A.D.Y.L.A.N. Train ... Sure, it will be a bit difficult to remember at first, but I'm confident I'll get the hang of it sooner or later.

Anyway, if you want to check my piece out, Quadrant should be out in the newspaper stands in a few days time. It was also Quadrant's 50th birthday last night; so congratulations to them!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, if you want more stuff published in print Timbo, get writing.

TimT said...

... if you insist!

Shelley said...

Wait, pay to read something of yours? What a novel idea.

Shelley said...

PS. Word verification gets bitchy in the wee hours - soqpwgqn, bvbktlba. Isn't it lucky I'm not drunk?

Caz said...

You could always add one or more middle initials that stand for absolutely nothing, other than being from the English language alphabet.

Congratulations on having your review published!

TimT said...

Thanks Caz!

Nails, I think you'll find that my review is the only balanced journalism in Quadrant ... or maybe it should be the other way around?

By all means boycott Quadrant if you like, it's basically an outlet for cranky conservative types in universities. But it's worth buying for the Frank Devine essay in the middle and the Peter Ryan column on the last page, and usually three or four other fine pieces of writing by the sort of poets/essayists who like being paid by cranky conservative publications.

Shelley said...

Are you working on a commission?

TimT said...

No - it was a completely unsolicited submission.

I have to harass them for money on my own good time ...

Anonymous said...

By all means boycott Quadrant if you like, it's basically an outlet for cranky conservative types in universities. But it's worth buying for the Frank Devine essay in the middle and the Peter Ryan column on the last page, and usually three or four other fine pieces of writing by the sort of poets/essayists who like being paid by cranky conservative publications.

You'll never get published in Quadrant again saying things like that.

Your writing name should be Timothy T.Train

TimT said...

That's assuming they read blogs. I *did* try to get my blog address slipped into my bio, actually. I personally quite like cranky conservative publications; they're much better than cranky progressive publications like Overland.

As a kid, I used to say that I'd get my middle name changed to 'N'. So my initials could be T.N.T. This was the time that ACDC song was out, you understand ...

Anonymous said...

AC DC

You bogan

TimT said...

I did grow up in country NSW ... though you wouldn't believe it to see me now ...

Email: timhtrain - at - yahoo.com.au

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