My name is Amanda. I live in the Boston area and work in a book conservation lab in an academic library. I like fixing things, especially book and paper things. I do all kinds of crafty things in my free time, including sewing, knitting, and bookbinding, but usually I spend a lot more time thinking about doing them than actually doing them, because I am lazy like that. I also write poetry of gradually increasing quality, thanks to the teaching and encouragement of a group of very talented poets whom I have had the good luck to fall in with. I consider writing poetry my vocation, though I still have a lot to learn.

I have been writing in various forms as a hobby for as long as I can remember. In early 2001 I started this blog (then called "On the Wing of my Fancy") to share my writing, thoughts and feelings. All my blog posts from then until the present (over a thousand at last count) are on this site.

There's plenty more I could say about me and about this website, but you're more likely to find interesting things by exploring than by reading a summary. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me -- amanda at ageoldsongs dot com. I enjoy (constructive) feedback. Otherwise, why put all this on the internet?

Comments: I like comments! Please feel free to leave some. You are welcome to disagree with me or other people, but please do so politely. Also, there are many things about my life (for instance, work) that I do not refer to directly in this blog for my own privacy. If you know me in real life and refer to private information about me in a comment, I will delete it (and probably send you an email explaining why.) Please respect those boundaries.

Memes: If you tag me for a meme, thank you! You're awesome. I tend to post memes and quizzes to my livejournal rather than this blog. Look for them over there.

RSS feed: I am aware that my RSS feed does not include the text of my posts, only a link. No, it's not broken, I'm just stubborn. You see, periodically I spend a great deal of time coming up with a new design for this site which I think is beautiful and wildly artistic and so forth, and it makes me grumpy to think that after all that work people will still just read my content in their RSS readers. So, a compromise: I provide a feed so that you don't have to click my link all the time to see if I've posted, but you still have to come here and look at my sunset picture and so on. Humor me, okay?

Thanks for reading!