Cathy Seipp is still hanging on, and according to her friend Sandra Tsing Loh, she's doing it to mess with all the "firsties!" bloggers who've counted her out already. Yes, a few of the guest-posts on Cathy's blog have slipped into past tense when referring to her, but if you just concentrate a little bit, you'll notice that nobody's pronounced her dead yet. Try asking yourself "What Would Cathy Do?", and the most obvious answer is that she'd read more carefully. (And that's how she'd say it too, so don't yell at me!)
If you're wondering why so many people are affected by Cathy's declining health, here's an example of what kind of person she is: Several years ago she and I struck up an e-mail acquaintance (I forget how, but we'd send each other silly stuff and laugh at the stupid people), and at some point I asked her about how to start a career as a freelance writer. So she sent me a book called The First Time I Got Paid for It, made up of anecdotes from all sorts of famous writers on how they got started. Now, keep in mind that this was a freebie she'd gotten at some point in her enviable career, which I know because she told me. I'm not saying it was her most prized possession or anything. But here's this dopey blogger she'd only ever met online, and she went out of her way to offer support and encouragement like that. She didn't want to make a big deal of it, so I didn't. But it kind of was, so now I kind of am. Ask anybody who knows her and you'll probably get some kind of story like that. Cathy Seipp is a great lady.
Posted by Jim Treacher at March 21, 2007 11:48 AM