hi all, looking over my posts I have a packrat side to me, collecting links on various subjects. heres one that Im sure you can enjoy. Ive wanted to do this ever since I 1st joined open salon about 1.5 yr ago. immediately I noticed bigshot authors eg dave cullen. in fact he had just blogged about being on the oprah show. wow!! it seemed like some pretty incredible momentum for both cullen and open salon. since then, other amazing stuff has happened eg release of the movie Julie and Julia which was based on a book by an open salon blogger relating to julia childs recipes. cant count how many people I saw start blogs saying, "I saw this movie and thought it would be fun to try blogging..."

[re Julie Powell, I found one of her blogs on here once many months ago but I havent found it again-- maybe it got deleted? if anyone knows where that page is please IM me.]

but the dark side [there is always a dark side.. [as the japanese saying goes, "the reverse side also has a reverse side"...] is that I couldnt really find that many authors when I 1st joined, and also open salon has not really hit the "big time" by various measures either. many of the most active posters are not all that accomplished or well-known and have various feuds going on the site behind the scenes....

but, Im very happy to announce that over the last 1.5 yr Ive collected many links to very accomplished authors on here. many of them keep a somewhat low profile. Im sure they could get many more hits and attention if they directed their readers to this site. but it seems to have a low-profile, experimental quality for many of them.

Im posting this partly to encourage new writers who are "out there" to join open salon. maybe on seeing the very high calibre of writers that are already on here, the open salon momentum can be further increased. so, feel free to pass on this list. and if you're a new writer and want to convince a publisher or agent about the importance or significance of your blogging on open salon, pass it on.

whats in it for me? well despite not feeling any luv from the editors on here [thats another story] I do want to see this site get better all the time with new talent.

and open salon really *is* OPEN, in contrast to other more elitist sites like, ironically and counterintuitively, the huffingtonpost, which doesnt even have a link *anywhere* to describe how to join the site as a published blogger-- shameful, and quite against the real spirit of cyberspace and blogging.

I really enjoy and get a quick thrill interacting with published authors in their comments or occasionally even IMs and Im sure most readers would agree. it can really make your day-- both for the author and the reader. authors who find themselves disconnected or put on a pedestal by their audiences, and in some ways because of the inherent broadcast style of publishing, can get an extremely personal and close connection with readers. it may be too much for some, but overall I think its liberating. you can participate to any degree you like. you are not required to answer IMs or open comments.

we're all in this thing together. we're exploring its potential. I believe there is much greater potential. and I challenge anyone to find a blog site with a larger cadre or higher quality of authors.

anyway, now that Ive been on here about 1.5 yr, Ive found a bunch of authors, enough to make an entire post, but it sure wasnt easy, it took many months of just reading the feeds to find them. many of these Ive personally favorited, but others Ive just included. and feel free to IM me with worthy additions. my criteria is basically published books or articles in the MSM. the critiera is not strictly delineated.

and why are they all "cool"? well I was gonna call this post "brilliant published authors" because nowadays in the tough dog-eat-dog world of publishing, you have to be brilliant just to be published. but "brilliant" didnt fit in my short title above so I just picked "cool" for now. why are they cool? well if you're a bigshot published author and you still like to blog and personally interact with your real audience, I call that cool, and I think everyone here can easily agree.

so, without further ado.

click on their pics to go to their blogs. happy exploring.

I will probably add brief reviews/summaries to each author below if this post gets a lot of attn [hits, ratings, comments, etc]

note, I took the time to sort these alphabetically.

 keiko alvarez

 francesca biller-safran

 john blumenthal

 david brin

 josie brown

 con chapman

 david cooper

 charlie courtland

 dave cullen

 valda dedieu

 deborah dolen

 bob eckstein [cartoonist]

 zoe fitzgerald carter

 william hazelgrove

 kaui hemmings

 carolita johnson

 caitlin kelly

 erica kennedy

 andrew klavan

 james p krehbiel

 dom macchiaroli

 christine mckellar

 lauren mclaughlin

 dr vanessa neumann

 melinda pillsbury-foster 

 kent pitman

 holly robinson

 scott rosenberg

 starshine roshell

 christopher ryan, Phd

 vanessa seijo

 david sirota

 karrin steffans-mccray

 ed stein [cartoonist]

 nikki stern

honorable mention
Julie Powell
http://juliepowell.blogspot.com/