I’m Mad. No, I’m not angry, that’s my name. I’m L. Mad Hildebrandt, and I’m a writer. I am also an historian. When I think about me, those are the first two things that pop into my head. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Today is all about introductions.
I became Mad when I was a young college student. It’s really not like it sounds! I wasn’t a wild child, but was rather shy. Well, okay, I considered myself shy, so I tried really hard not to be the wallflower. I was one in high school, so I knew what that felt like. I wanted out of my shell. In college I tried hard to make friends. I ran for student council representative . . . and won! I still think it was my name, not my early attempts at public speaking that got me elected. That’s when ‘Madeline’ became ‘Mad.’ I guess I didn’t remind my friends of a certain French orphan. Or maybe I did?
Life always seems to take Ludwig Bemelmans’ Madeline unexpected places.
lived twelve little girls in two straight lines
They left the house, at half past nine …
The smallest one was Madeline.”
Life always seems to take me unexpected places, too. I follow my husband from state to state every three to four years. He’s a military man. As an historian, it’s been rough. It’s hard to re-establish myself in a new college so often. I never get to teach full-time. I never get tenure. But as a writer, it’s pay-dirt. I get to experience new places, and new people on a regular basis. These days I’m in Alabama . . . Deep South . . . the land of boiled peanuts and cotton. I feel like a Woody Guthrie verse sometimes:
from the Red Wood Forest to the rocky Maine shore
from Alaska’s long night to New Jersey’s Pine Barrens
. . . this land was made for me and you.
Today is a new beginning for me. No, I’m not moving again, at least not yet. My new beginning is starting this blog. Like Madeline, I’m stepping out the door, and into unfamiliar territory. Certainly, it’s not uncharted. Many other people have blogged before me. But this is my story, where I’m going to discuss my experiences in the real world of Alabama, and in the somewhat surrealistic publishing world. That’s what I call the Land of Oz. So follow me, if you will, as I travel my own yellow brick road through publication-land.
