It isn’t exactly how I want to see my name on a book. The goal here is to be the name that comes after the title, you know, the author? But, I’ll take what I can get for now. You can’t ever be the author if you don’t ever sit down and write. That’s a problem I have, I don’t write nearly enough.
The new edition of California’s Legislature just came out (you can see the old edition here.) I was interning in the Chief Clerk’s office at the time it was being revised and such and helped do research for the book. I don’t quite recall what the research was. It was looking up various dates or verifying said dates. Anyway, that isn’t important; what’s important is that my name is in the acknowledgments section of the book:
Shock of all shocks they spelled my name wrong. Doesn’t matter that I had it verified twice with the editors. I’m sure some “helpful” person at the Printer’s decided I didn’t know how to spell my own name. To you “helpful” printer I say, “die in a fire, please.”
Funny! Loudon Wainwright III has a song he does with an Elvis twang: “I see my name up in lights/ but then I notice–it’s not spelled right…Sinatra wouldn’t stand for it./ Pavarotti would have a shit fit.” Like you, he’s laughing at how the public misspelling underscores his obscurity.