Liz Woodbury is a prolific writer and editor who has several websites, including the ever entertaining Overheard in Portland. She's also a small business owner with her husband, and the proud parent of two other writers.
What got you started with your own websites?
I started my personal blog, Mean Mama, about six years ago as essentially a virtual scrapbook of photographs and stories about my kids, Zoë and Isaac, who were 12 and 9 at the time. I was also a writer who wrote infrequently, so my blog has served at various times as a journal, a space for me to write whatever I feel like writing.
Overheard in Portland began literally as a place to record funny things my family and I overheard, and became a blog inspired by Overheard in New York.
Tell me about the different sites you have and the purpose that you hope they serve to others (and to you)?
Over the years, most of my family and many of my friends have started reading Mean Mama regularly, so I keep things fairly sunny (rather than confessional). What I'm saying is: my mother-in-law reads my blog. My intention is to keep a record of my life, or at least the fun, inspiring, strange, and lovely things that happen in my life, more for myself than for anyone else. I can't tell you how often I have gone back to my blog to check what year something happened, or to resolve an argument over whose house we had Christmas at in 2009 or whatever. My hope is that it keeps distant friends and relatives informed of big events in my life and my kids' lives, and it gives me a place where I'm free to babble about whatever is on my mind, or to brag about my (fairly awesome) children. Not to mention my dog, Minnow.
My husband and I have a small business, Milo in Maine, and we collaborate on its blog, which is mostly photos of beautiful places in Maine and lovely people wearing the t-shirts we make.
Overheard in Portland is just plain funny. It is for the amusement of anyone who reads it, and for that particular kind of satisfaction you get from seeing your city's weirdness captured perfectly. I love getting submissions from people, because it makes me feel like I'm meeting new people all the time. During the winter, I suspect it keeps me from hibernating, because someone's got to be out there eavesdropping on people's conversations.
What made you come up with Overheard in Portland? And why hasn't every other city in the US stolen your idea?
I was inspired by Overheard in New York, which as far as I know is the original (and probably best) of the Overheard genre. There are overheard blogs for various other cities, and there have been others that were abandoned after a while. It's probably just a peculiarity of mine that I've always been determined to keep the blog going, even through dry spells when no one was sending me anything and I wasn't personally hearing anything funny. It's been around since 2006, and I have no plans to stop as long as I continue to live here. And as long as Portland continues to be such fertile ground for hilarious words coming out of people's mouths.
Has anyone ever contacted you about Overheard in Portland claiming they were the person who said something? Maybe trying to correct it or just clear up why they were saying it?
No, although I've had people comment that they knew who was speaking, based on description or what the person said. I keep waiting for the day, actually, that someone e-mails me something ridiculous that I've said!
Do you have a favorite quote from there?
My very favorite overheard is the first one I posted. It's probably not the funniest, but my kids heard it too, and it's become a longstanding family joke. At the Lobster Shack in Cape Elizabeth, we heard a tourist woman say to a tourist man, "What's that?" after the foghorn blew. "Oh, that's the tide horn," said the man. "It tells you when the tide is coming in." He said it so authoritatively, too! Now we always refer to the foghorn as the "tide horn."
How did Milo in Maine start as a business? Is it your full time gig (other than writing)?
Milo in Maine was kind of a spinoff of our former business, which was a bookstore/cafe in the Old Port called Casco Bay Books. We ran it for about seven years, and towards the end of its life we added a small clothing shop to our space, where we sold (among other things) our own t-shirts, stitch illustrated and screen printed. We've always kind of scrapped along to stay in Portland, and my husband Mark is very entrepreneurial. Milo is pretty successful, especially considering that it is a part-time job for both of us. I work on it about half time, and I do freelance writing of various kinds half time. Right now I'm writing and editing for a fabulous website, http://www.vocabulary.com.
What sort of writing do you love the most? Or are most invested in?
I actually love the work I'm doing as a freelancer, which is not terribly creative but is somehow extremely satisfying. It is very straightforward, utilitarian, and it all has to do with defining words and writing quizzes to test people on them. Other kinds of writing are so fraught for me. I am pretty critical of myself, and I'm overly careful. I have a bad habit of editing the quirk and personality out of things. I went to graduate school for writing, and I still write short fiction, but I do it very very privately at this point.
Mean Mama is a more personal blog; how does the family respond to that? And how do you respond to their response (if there is much of one!)
From the beginning I whined that Mean Mama would never be one of those mom blogs with adorable anecdotes about my kids, since they both read it and censored anything too cute or embarrassing. I am careful about people there--what I say about them and what photos I post. But as time has gone by, I am more and more tempted to be honest, to reflect the less fun parts of my life, even at the risk of hurting someone's feelings. Because I really do hate those blogs where life is perfect all the time. And for a while I was able to use Twitter to post funny things my kids said, until they started following me there, too.
Both of your children seem to be blogging now; have they ever expressed interest in working with you on yours?
They are two of my most intrepid Portland spies, actually. The two of them and a few good friends will often call me or text me immediately if they hear something good. My son has a sporadic Tumblr that he uses primarily for photographs and video, and my daughter is actually a much better blogger than I am.
What are your favorite blogs to check out?
Locally, I like Unseen Portland (http://www.unseenportland.com/) , Checkout Girl (http://checkoutgirlcrafts.blogspot.com/), Strange Maine (http://strangemaine.blogspot.com/), Swallowfield (http://swallowfield.typepad.com/), Hilly Town (http://hillytown.com/), Unemployed Negativity (http://unemployednegativity.blogspot.com/), and World of Julie (http://worldofjulie.com/). I also love smart, funny anti-mom blogs like Mimi Smartypants (http://mimismartypants.com/) and La Femme Follette (http://lafemmefollette.typepad.com/lafemmefollette/).
Favorite writers?
I find this question impossible to answer, I truly do. However, I will say that I read constantly and voraciously and that lately I've enjoyed reading books by E.B.White, Ann Patchett, Nicholson Baker, Kate Atkinson, Scott Heim, Lydia Davis, Antonya Nelson, Ruth Rendell, Jonathan Safran Foer, Sarah Waters, and Jennifer Egan.
You have 24 hours to live, you can do anything (that's physically possible to do) in that time (with an unlimited budget); what do you do?
Realistically, I waste at least half of it trying to decide what to do (I'm hopelessly indecisive), and then I get exhausted and take a nap. Ideally though, I gather my favorite family members and my favorite, most beloved friends (and my dog), and we all go some place that is breathtakingly beautiful (it could be Acadia, or some other gorgeous, ocean-side place). We walk and talk and laugh and play games and eat amazing food, all with a view of the sea. Then we build a bonfire on the beach and watch the sun come up.
Any last thoughts?
Thanks, Andrew! Keep your ear to the pavement...