Meet the Blogger: Beth Blevins

I grew up a preacher's daughter, moving every few years from one small congregation to the next. Most churches were pretty cool. Some weren't. When I was 11 and we lived in Texas, the church leadership was so corrupt that my dad had a stress-induced heart attack and hid it so that he wouldn't get fired, neither seeking medical attention nor calling in sick.

In college, I took a class called Church Conflict Management and soaked up every molecule of information I could, because it directly addressed what kind of catalysts could cause the pain my family suffered, and what kind of measures we could have taken to prevent or identify the danger (prevent, almost none; identify, plenty). I learned that managing conflict in churches is the single hardest venue for even the most seasoned conflict specialists, and my professor had a high success rate only because he weeded out the impossible cases on the front end.

I tell you this because it directly influences my approach to guilds and guild management and the subjects I choose to address. I tend to write from a "Things will go wrong" perspective.

Experience

Jan 2008 - Jan 2009: Recruitment Princess (aka Officer). I handled the applications and recruiting. I believed that recruitment could be either a boon or illness on my guild and made it my personal crusade to protect the guild from people who could hurt it.

Jan 2009: Social Events Princess (aka Officer). After IVV removed the need for a recruitment officer (to my intense satisfaction and support), I was made the events officer to schedule old world raids and social events. I felt this job provided scheduling conflicts with my real life and a different kind of pressure than my old job did. I also felt that members could get along well without me, and so retired from being an officer.

Profession

I consider myself a professional writer (I go by my maiden name here because it's also my pen name), even though I don't have any credentials after high school and college. I feel that professionalism is a state of mind and that accomplishments are a result rather than the cause.

I'm working on a series of books about super heroes. It's a bunch of fun young adult fluff because I don't think a work has to be "literary" to be useful to the people reading it. I went to the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts in my junior year of high school but quit halfway through with a bad taste in my mouth and a violent disdain for anything arrogant and elitist, including an unfortunate prejudice against anyone who strives to do impressive things just so they can feel superior (motives make a difference to me).

Socially, I'm friendly but shy and need people to like me. Professionally, I'm confident, tough, and even critical. When I write for The Family Business or Letters from Birdfall, I tend to put on my professional persona. In gchat and guild forums, I use a surprising (to me) blend of confident and friendly.

Personal

I don't like to travel, even though I've been through Europe and lived in London. An ultimate homebody, I'd rather sit on the couch writing than just about anything else. (Reasons to leave the apartment include church, food, movies, jogging, and maybe fire.)

I play with my husband, brother, sister-in-law, and her little brother. We also include my husband's best friend in our family, who was guild leader between Teo's two terms. Growing up, I hero-worshiped my big brother, Jon, and followed him to a private Christian college where I met my husband, a computer guy who loves video games and hung out with a very strange crowd of friends (oddball artist, programmer x3, outgoing thespian, crazy Frenchman, pre-med Iranian Texan, musician x4). I loved that he was the "normal nice guy" in his group because it meant that he was stable but could appreciate weird and I . . . have been told that I'm weird. (Imagining the bus driver Bernie's conversation with his dispatcher Bernice and then repeating it to everyone in the car with accents but without an explanation isn't that weird! If Bernice was stationed beyond the light pole, and Bernie had a clearer view of oncoming traffic . . . they'd totally have that conversation. >.<)

Characters

Dustfire (BE Priest) is my raiding main on Zuluhed. She fulfills whatever the guild needs, though she was shadow until the recent healing crisis. I'm working on a story about her for my Birdfall blog, showcasing her role-play possibilities. Dustfire is sultry but manipulative, sly, and cruel. She puts down other women, sleeps with men for favors, and considers herself more important than the people around her do.

Plum (Tauren Druid) is my PVP main on Zuluhed. She's sweet, illiterate, hates enclosed spaces, and a great storyteller.

Birdfall (NE Rogue) is my holiday main on Moon Guard. I use her to complete holiday achievements for pets and pretty dresses. As a role-play character, she's serious and likes to keep a low profile, so she doesn't talk to strangers, and she doesn't have much to say when she does. Her best friend is my husband's mute female druid.