Writings in the Sand

Allow me to introduce myself, and my other self...

Names change a lot around here.

I noticed over the last year since I joined WDC, that people often change their handles to suit the season or a holiday or for personal reasons that they are not required to share with me. Not trying to pry, not at all.

But I hadn't thought about changing my name until I realized it probably made no sense to most people. I am not sure I thought very hard about my name when I chose it. After all, I didn't know what WDC was all about or how long I'd be staying. I might have chosen differently if I had.

Anyway, at the time, I'd been watching some television shows from Scandinavia and since I am half Danish, the idea of "Nordic Noir" appealed. Nordic Noir is a genre of Scandinavian dark crime fiction. Maybe it doesn't fit exactly as I don't write crime fiction, but I felt both nordic and noir. I hadn't considered whether or not the name would make sense to anyone else or be difficult to pronounce. Noir is French for the color black or the general sense of darkness and is often used to describe various artistic styles - like "film noir" - but most non French-speaking people don't use the word noir on any regular basis.

For the record, "noir" is pronounced something like "nwahr". But that doesn't really matter much when you're reading and what's in a name? So, I didn't really think much about NordicNoir being a poor name choice or that perhaps it should have been "noire" since that is the feminine form or even that the name might eventually become my "bête noire" (literally, black beast - something you dislike very much or is annoying to you).

So, all of this to say that I have finally updated my portfolio introduction page and changed my handle to Ned. Now, I know that Ned doesn't sound any more feminine than NordicNoir, but it's a name I have used on the net and in writing and blogging for more than a decade. Ned is a diminutive form of an anagram of my real name, and it feels familiar to me. I can slip into Ned the way one can slip into an old, worn-out shoe. It's comfy and conformed to the shape of one's foot, no matter how deformed the toes or how big the corns.

So, that's it. The story of Ned (me) who is also NordicNoir (me, too). Slightly boring, I know. But hey, anything to avoid the dreaded "Reminder: Update Your Blog" email, right?