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And what happened to "The Writer" and "TheWolf?"
Those who know me from my early modeming days remember me as TheWolf, or, unavoidably, Wolfie. I've always liked wolves. They're intelligent, but their intelligence isn't widely known; they're capable as individuals, but depend on family. And they're widely misunderstood. So when I was asked to enter my first "alias," I wrote Wolf. Of course it was already taken, so I tried "TheWolf," which worked. It stuck.
Much later, I found myself again needing to choose an alias: logging on to the internet for my first Internet Relay Chat, I quickly discovered that this time TheWolf was not available.
Darnitallanyways, I thought.
What else could I use as an alias? Well, if it wasn't to be TheWolf, it would have to be something even better. How did I want to be known to the world? (This was, after all, the internet.) What nickname would best represent who I am?
The answer was immediate. The most important part of my life (aside from adding to the love in the world and striving to be a better person, of course) was my writing. Being a writer (if sometimes more in spirit than in fact) has shaped my life as surely as being raised Catholic, reading Science Fiction, and growing up in the country. If not more.
So Writer it was. But not just Writer. The "The" prefix carried over from "TheWolf" and added a nice confidence to the name, I thought.
I liked "TheWriter," but it still didn't seem to say enough about who I am. And every now and then the name would be in use or I'd get asked if I were "Joe," so someone else on the net was using "TheWriter" as well.
Then, on Saturday, August 16, I logged onto IRC to visit the #writers channel for a while, and "TheWriter" was in use by someone in the channel. Like they say, "it was the camel that sipped from the backwards straw," or something. I decided it was time to find an even more original name, and said so to the others in the channel. The person using "TheWriter" apologized profusely, and the witfull folks in #writers began changing their nicknames at a frenzied pace, adding "The" or "Writer" to their names and then changing them again with increasingly funny variations.
I changed my nickname to "CSW" for the meantime, falling back on my old Fidonet nickname of Canada's Sexiest Writer. I considered using that for this site but, as sexy as I believe myself to be, I just wouldn't feel right about declaring myself the sexiest writer in Canada.
Once again I asked myself: What would best describe who I am? And then, slowly, I pieced together the name for this site. I'm a writer, I'm a proud and patriotic Canadian, and I'm friendly. (You could argue that maybe I should have called this site "The Crazy Canadian Writer's Page," but it doesn't have the right ring to it. :)
So if ever you're on IRC, and I'm on IRC, and there's a blue moon out, and pigs are piloting the Concorde, check in #writers for "TFCWriter." If it's me (hopefully no one out there is going by "The Furry Creek Writer" or something), say hello, and let me know what you think of this site.
Last modified: November 15, 2003
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