Monday, February 12, 2007

It's official: I'm a writer

Or, rather, a published writer.

I have a piece up on the It's Just Coffee website, a tongue-in-cheek online dating site with humorous and informative articles on dating, self-improvement, and relationships.

I'm pretty excited about this. Here's the link.

25 comments:

Jennifer said...

Congrats! And wow, those were some really bad come-ons. To paraphrase David Cross, 999 women will have the same reaction as you did to those e-mails, but maybe there's one who wants to fuck on a pile of trash (and poor grammar).

BTW, how is It's Just Coffee as a dating site? I'm curious.

Dolly said...

Constant,
Thank you! And that's a great quote (I love David Cross on Arrested Development).

I haven't used IJC for dating purposes, because I think it would be a conflict of interest to work for the site and use it to date. But it's free and it does encourage a more fun and irreverant attitude toward dating, so you might as well give it a try!

Aphexcoil said...

dolly,

u r so hott ! i weant to bee yer friend. OMG like you are totally a model..!!!!!!!!????? ,,,,, ,;,,;;

;!!!;; ?

Aphexcoil said...

constant dater,

To paraphrase David Cross, 999 women will have the same reaction as you did to those e-mails, but maybe there's one who wants to fuck on a pile of trash (and poor grammar).


I prefer to think of it as making beautiful love on a compost heap.

Dolly said...

Aphie,
Okay, your second comment almost made me choke on my water, because I was laughing. u r 2 much!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations.


Silver

Anonymous said...

Congrats!!i've been reading your blog for the past few weeks and really love the way you write.Keep it up!!
PS: It seems that dating in NYC is pretty brutal. :P

Vicious said...

Dolly,

Web Wesley? So he's the guy from Its Just Coffee, right? I was wondering why that link showed up in it's own section.

As for the emails. Maybe I have too faith in the general public, but I can't believe adult men were sending you things like this. Probably just 14 year old boys. Then again, I would have thought of something better at 14.

-Vicious

Pargolo said...

dolly,
i forwarded your article to all my law school friends. I too was snorting on my water as I read it. Congrats!
on another note, most of the pickupartist sites are for men. Does this mean the pick up artist is generally male, or is there a female equivalent?

James said...

Dolly: I adore the awful e-mails (and, more particularly, your delightful responses); congratulations on being published there. You really ought to do more writing; you are, as I think that I have remarked before, quite talented at it. Have you read, for example, about the British 'blogger, "Girl with a One Track Mind" selected extracts of whose 'blog was recently turned into a best-selling book?

Dolly said...

Silver,
Thanks!

Carrie,
"Brutal" is such a strong word... Let's just say it can be on the frustrating and futile side.

Vicious,
Most of the messages were sent by adult men. That's part of what makes them so frightening.

Pargolo,
I hope your law school friends find a moment of entertaining respite, because I know law school is mega-stressful. As for female PUAs, there are the cougars, a sect of older women who pursue younger men. For the most part, though, I think women prefer to be the chase-ee, not chaser.

Coatman,
I have glanced at that blog, and heard about the book. Good for her! I hope the book is doing well, so that publishers want to sign more blogger book deals!

Sister Copinherhair said...

It's awesome, Dolly! Congratulations! I would share my own MySpace correspondence if I didn't need them for my own book. ;)

majortominor said...

My big objection to the whole emoticon thing is that they make us tone deaf. we can't be bothered to *listen* for irony anymore; we need what's essentially a laugh track for our prose. I don't want to lose the sound of (written) words!!

Anonymous said...

That's great1 Kepe up the good work.

Anonymous said...

FUCKEN A, WOMAN!

That is one BITCHEN ARTICLE!

By the way, if you're the girl in the picture, then you must be one sexy PIECE OF BITCH!

Cordially,

Mr. Coprolalia

Aphexcoil said...

My big objection to the whole emoticon thing is that they make us tone deaf. we can't be bothered to *listen* for irony anymore; we need what's essentially a laugh track for our prose. I don't want to lose the sound of (written) words!!

Emoticons help the written word. When chatting online or corresponding through e-mails, the written word loses all of the subtle cues that is otherwise present with real-life communication (tone inflection, body language, speed of speaking, etc.)

The written word can be a great communication tool in some ways but when it comes to conveying emotions, it fails miserably. Emoticons help slightly to restore some of the lost meanings.

Anonymous said...

Congrats, that's something to be proud of. It couldn't have happened to a nicer person!

Amy

Anonymous said...

Thanks for that article. That made my day!

Still ROFL @ "Prince School of Naming Songs".

Bridget said...

did you post an earlier version of that somewhere else? for some reason it totally seems familiar to me (familiar in terms of you either writing it or us discussing it)

Dolly said...

Damsel,
I totally understand. I'll wait to read the book.

Majortominor and Aphie,
I see where both of you are coming from. Sarcasm or joking around can be difficult to convey without the use of an emoticon. At the same time, I think people have become lazy in their communication and relied to much on things like smileys.

Mr. Coprolalia,
That's not me in the photo, but during my good days I like to think I'm "one sexy piece of bitch", though I'd never, ever phrase it quite that way.

Moxie and Amy,
Thank you!

Clarissa,
Yes, the article was adapted from a previous blog post.

Aphexcoil said...

Dolly,

I think people have become lazy in their communication and relied to much on things like smileys.

:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

Anonymous said...

Great article! Just as a small aside, this post:

"You sound like you might make an interesting friend, so let's get together for a cup of something delicious and some interesting conversation... if you think you can handle it, that is!" ;)"

is a nearly direct quotation from David Deangelo's Double Your Dating online dating course. The sad thing is I bet the guy cut and pasted it and just added the super fun emoticon on the end. Obviously he has game!

-Bobby

Dolly said...

Bobby,
Somebody else mentioned that the other day. Which makes it all the cheesier. Whatever game you think he has, it's pretty piss-poor.

NotCarrie said...

That is so awesome! Congrats.

Anonymous said...

Hey Dolly,

I almost wished you had sent some of those responses. I mean, how else will the poor guys learn? Maybe there is a gracious and painless way that they could be advised to change their ways (though of course you have no obligation to teach them).

Btw, I think the most egregious online dating errors are made by men, but have you noticed the phenomenon of ultra-ultra girlie airheaded profiles on Myspace? I've noticed the same thing on a lot of female blogs, though those aren't necessarily intended to attract men. The writing is even worse than in the messages you got sent: there are like 10 emoticons per paragraph.

The sense you get from those profiles is that the girl spends about 90% of their time talking about boys and clothes with their female friends. All they talk about is (a) their friends, (b) boys they dated, (c) new clothes/accessories they just got, (d) their moods and complaints about other people. Here's my best imitation:

------
OMIGOOOOD!!!! check out mah new look!! last night, my bestest friend in the WHOLE WORLD bethany helped me die mah hair AUBERN!!! *scroll down for a piccy* ;) ....which is great becuz yesterday i was kinda feeling like blah and i don't why i am always sooo moody cuz i think it's been since Bobby and i broke up becuz i just got like kinda tired of him, i mean he used to tidy mah room when i wuznt around to surprise me which was grate because i am SO MESSY!! 8) but he i dunno i guess i was just like you know not really feeling it anymore...
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